China's Mir?

Here's a picture of a model outside the Chinese Space Agency's booth at the IAC, showing a Shenzhou docked with a "space lab".
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgrabois/4003864633

A little like Mir, yes. However, that shouldn't be a surprise as, as far as I can tell, Chinese HSF hardware seems derived from 80s- and 90s-era Soviet space tech. So, jut as Shengyang looks somewhat like Soyuz, its logical that Tiangong would look like the later Saluts (Salut-6, -7, Mir and the ISS service module).

Give the Chinese space agency credit. They are avoiding lots of development costs by basing their hardware on technology that has been proven and thus they know will work. That has to be a big cost-saving move and will enable them to compress their timeline somewhat.

Before this decade is out, I predict (and no, I don't "know" anything)that China and India both will be partners on the ISS, supplying crews and cargos via their indigenous spacecraft-both of which have their lineage based on Soyuz. What will history call the greatest manned spacecraft ever designed and evolved-still flying after nearly a half century? (the first Soyuz booster flew the week JFK was killed)-Soyuz. It outlived Apollo, Shuttle, spacelifter, ALS, NLS, DC-X, X-33, X-34, NGLT, SLI, and OSP. And it will be keeping Americans in space for the better part of the next decade.
Who da man, eh? Oh well, America, we do have our viewgraphs, desktop models, PowerPoint presentations, and wishful thinking...

Meh ... China's had designs for space stations floating around for many years. Ditto reusable spaceplanes. They offered up a model space station back in 2000: http://www.astronautix.com/graphics/c/chistat2.jpg

I really wouldn't read too much into this. China, for all the propaganda they trumpet about their space program, isn't very interested in spending too much money on its space program.

It's going to be many, many years before they ramp up to Soviet/Russian/American/European levels.

IMHO, history will record Sergei Korolev (and Valentin Glushko to a lesser degree), not Werner von Braun, as the father of human space travel in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Soyuz and Soyuz heritage LVs and spacecraft will probably be around until the 2030s at the very least.

Frank: why should the Soyuz be called the "greatest manned spacecraft ever designed and evolved" - because the design was in operation the longest? In terms of manned spacecraft, it stands apart from others only by virtue of having flown for so long with little incident. In terms of capacity and capabilities, I'd say the Shuttle Orbiter is the "greatest." Those features of come with their own set of problems, but the Shuttle aspires to be (and is) more than a simple people-mover; that's something that Soyuz will never be able to accomplish.



I would say that one reason that the Chinese station looks a lot like Mir is that it has to be constructed a lot like Mir - out of modules with their own power, propulsion, guidance, and navigation systems. The ISS looks different because it can have modules with none of those things: because of the Shuttle. An organization that doesn't have access to the capabilities of the Shuttle doesn't have the capabilities to construct a station out of ISS-like modules.

"I really wouldn't read too much into this. China, for all the propaganda they trumpet about their space program, isn't very interested in spending too much money on its space program"

Can we sell them ISS at a bargain rate? Lease it?

This would be an excellent opportunity to face small budgets for NASA, stop pretending as we have for almost half a century that budgets will increase at some unspecified future time, and to push for international cooperation. The ISS was a success as far as international cooperation. Other countries get that they do not have unlimited funds for space exploration. We should also and lead for international space exploration.
Power point presentations did not get us into space in the first place and will not help us in the future. I would rather see a realistic limited plan that has a chance than an imaginary ambitious plan that will never come to fruition.