China launched its second space laboratory, the Tiangong II, on Thursday night, which space officials said will become the country's largest scientific platform in space.
星期四晚，中國發射了第二個空間實驗室——天宮二號。航天官員表示這將成為我國最大的太空科學實驗室。
The space lab, the nation's first spacecraft with a modular design, was lifted off atop a Long March 2F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China's Gobi Desert at 10:04 pm. The lab will undergo preparations in space for about one month before the Shenzhou XI manned spacecraft, in a flight scheduled for mid-October, will take two astronauts to the lab to enter it. The astronauts will stay inside the lab for 30 days. The lab will be monitored and controlled mainly by the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center.
北京時間22：04，在位于中國西北戈壁灘的酒泉衛星發射中心，該空間實驗室由長征二號FT2火箭發射，它也是我國第一個采用模塊化設計的宇宙飛船。此外，神舟十一號載人宇宙飛船計劃于十月中旬搭乘兩名宇航員進入該實驗室。但在此之前，該實驗室將在太空進行維持約一個月的準備工作。隨后，宇航員們將駐留三十天。而天宮二號主要由北京航天指揮中心監測和控制。
Its predecessor, Tiangong I, was launched in September 2011 and was mainly used to test technologies involved in space rendezvous and docking. By comparison, the Tiangong II will conduct more than 40 scientific and technological experiments together with the Shenzhou XI. That is many more than those carried out by the Tiangong I and three previous Shenzhou spacecraft, according to Wu Ping, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency. "Strictly speaking, Tiangong II is China's first genuine space laboratory. We aim to take advantage of the lab's strong capability, the microgravity and radiation in space as well as the astronauts' long stay to conduct scientific experiments and technological tests in many fields," she said.
在2011年九月成功發射的天宮一號，身為天宮二號的“大哥”，它主要被用于測試各項技術，其中包括空間交互對接技術。相比之下，天宮二號將與神舟十一號一起進行超過40項的科技實驗。中國載人航天工程辦公室副主任武平表示，這比天宮一號以及三個更早的神舟系列宇宙飛船所做的更多。她還表示：“嚴格上來說，天宮二號是我國第一個真正意義上的太空實驗室。我們的目的是充分利用這個實驗室的強大作用，太空的微重力和輻射，以及宇航員長時間地作業來進行眾多領域的科學實驗和技術測試。”
Zhu Zongpeng, chief designer of Tiangong II at the China Academy of Space Technology, said microgravity, strong radiation and extreme temperatures in space can facilitate research on life science, physics and cutting-edge technologies, so Chinese scientists will make full use of the Tiangong II mission to do experiments that are not possible on Earth.
中國航天科技集團公司天宮二號總設計師朱樅鵬說：“太空中微重力、強輻射和極端的溫度可促進生命科學、物理和尖端科技的研究，所以我國科學家將充分利用天宮二號任務去做在地球上無法做到的實驗。”
Liao Jianlin, a senior engineer at the academy who took part in Tiangong II's development, said that Tiangong II has devices to test in-orbit repair technologies for China's future manned space station, which is planned to be built around 2022. Moreover, each system on the space lab uses a modular design, which means they can be rapidly changed or repaired in case of malfunction, he said. This is the first time that a Chinese spacecraft has adopted modular design, Liao added.
同時，該集團中的高級工程師——廖建林也參與了天宮二號的研發，他表示天宮二號裝有測試在軌維修技術的裝置，該裝置將為我國計劃約2022年建成的載人空間站起到作用。此外，在太空實驗室上的每個系統都使用了模塊化設計，這意味著當它出現故障時可以迅速更換和維修。廖建林說：“這是中國宇宙飛船第一次采用模塊化設計。”
The country is expected to have the only space station after the International Space Station is retired in 2024.
由此可見，在2024年國際空間站停用后，中國有望成為唯一的空間站擁有者。
