Live telecast of China’s space-lab launch
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Thai audiences will tonight be able to witness a live telecast of the historic launch of China’s milestone Tiangong 2 space lab, aimed at strengthening its presence in space, on Thai Central Chinese Television (Thai CCTV).
The satellite-based TV station announced that it would start live telecast of the launch of Tiangong 2 at 10.04pm local time (9.04pm Bangkok time) into orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert.
Thai audiences can watch the live telecast on Thai CCTV station, which is available on PSI channel No 123, GMMZ channel No 123, Big4 channel No 123, Sun Box channel No 78, True Visions channel No 816 or channel No 908 and local cable TV network.
Xinhuanet.com reported that Thursday’s space-lab launch is part of China’s ambitious space programme, with the aim of having a manned space station by 2022.
According to CNN’s website, Tiangong 2 will be able to host astronauts for much longer than its predecessor, the Tiangong 1, which was launched in 2011. It has two cabins – one for astronauts and experiments, the other for equipment.
Meanwhile, the Chinese state-run website of “CCTV-America.com” said this space lab is also equipped with a cold atom space clock that has an estimated precision of 10 to the power of minus 16 seconds. This essentially means the accuracy of the clock is within a one-second error every 30 million years. This exactness will help measure previously undetectable fluctuations for experiments conducted in zero-gravity.
