Manufacturing

China's unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou-8 departed from the prototype space lab Tiangong-1 at 6:30 pm Wednesday, preparing for return to earth, a spokesperson for China's manned space program said.

This came after China had successfully completed its first two space docking tests that joined the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft, launched on November 1, and the target orbiter Tiangong-1 on November 3 and November 14, respectively.

Tiangong-1, a module of a planned space lab, has been in orbit since its launch on September 29.

China supercomputer Dawn 5000.

Supercomputer Dawn 6000, which performs 1.27 quadrillion (1.27 petaflops) calculations per second at peak speed, was in full operation at the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen yesterday.

The system was developed jointly by Dawning Information Industry Co Ltd and the Calculation Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is the fourth-fastest computing system in the world.

Li Jun, president of Dawning Information Industry Co Ltd, said Dawn 6000 was the most advanced technology in the Dawning family. At a launching ceremony yesterday, he said it would be mainly used for high-speed calculations, cloud computing, and key national projects and research.

Major helicopter producer is in talks with its Russian counterpart to jointly develop a 33-ton heavy-lift helicopter, a senior manager said.

"China can produce helicopters with a take-off weight from 1 ton to 13 tons, but only the United States and Russia can produce choppers with lift-off weight of more than 20 tons," said Xia Qunlin, deputy general manager of Avicopter, a joint venture between Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC) and the Tianjin municipal government.

"If approved by the government, the 33-ton heavy helicopter is expected to fill a gap in China... and play important roles in rescue missions and fighting forest fires," he said.

Wiring Installation for Tiangong 1 in China Space.