China just successfully recovered its experimental spacecraft that was launched by its new, state of the art rocket, this Sunday, which marks another milestone for the nation with its highly ambitious space program, rivaling NASA's and SpaceX's mission to Mars, as China is targeting to explore the Red Planet by the end of this decade.
Local space program officials announced via state media that the landing of the spacecraft at the Badain Jaran Desert in the Inner Mongolian steppe is a crucial undertaking in keeping China on schedule for its second space station to be launched into lower Earth orbit by the end of the year.
Launching the spacecraft on Saturday, June 25, aboard the new version of the Long March 7 rocket was considered as a crucial breakthrough as the rocket utilizes safer and environmental friendly propellants. Apart from this, the launch also heralded the first use of the new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center located on the southern island of Hainan.
China launched its first manned mission to space in 2003 and since then, the nation launched its first space station known as Tiangong 1 and conducted a spacewalk and successfully landing a lunar rover called Yutu on the moon.
Now, China's second space station known as Tiangong 2 will be placed into orbit by September. After this launch, the Shenzhou 11 spacecraft with two astronauts on board will be scheduled to carry out a docking maneuver at the station, as the space explorers will remain at the new space station for around seven days. Space program officials also announced that a human landing on the moon will be scheduled in the near future.
This year, China launched 20 successful space missions, thanks to its military support for the space program as other countries like the United States and other European nations are also involved in a new space race.
To date, China is now into development of their heavier-lift rocket known as Long March 5 that will soon launch massive scientific payloads for the Tiangong 2.