Watch out, America. China is steadily catching up in space.
Between June and August this year, China plans to send three astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-9 for manual docking of the spacecraft with Tiangong 1, a space lab that has been orbiting the Earth since September.
One of the astronauts will not board the space lab, media reports say, but will remain inside the spacecraft in case of emergency.
"China has something critical that the US does not - the political will to push forward." Dat geldt niet alleen voor space, maar ook voor andere takken van big science....
Marco de Baar
