A Long March 2F rocket will blast off on Thursday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu Province to take China's first space laboratory, called Tiangong-1, into the space.

The 10.5m-long, unmanned cylindrical module is designed to remain in orbit for around two year after launch.

The module will operate in an autonomous mode in a near-circular trail around the Earth. A few weeks after the launch of the Tiangong-1, another unmanned spacecraft, called Shenzhou 8, will be launched and linked with the first module. China will likely make use of Russian technology, or a close facsimile of it, to bring the two modules into line.

If both modules operate well, China will send two manned missions, dubbed Shenzhou 9 and Shenzhou 10 sometime in 2012.

Tiangong, which means "heavenly palace" in Chinese language, is the second step in China's three-step strategy to master in space technology.

In the first step, China developed the Shenzhou capsule that has so far taken six nationals into orbit. In the ongoing second step, China is developing technologies needed for docking and spacewalking. The third and the final step will involve the construction of the 60-tonne space station that China aims to complete by the year of 2020.

The main objective behind the Tiangong-1 is to test the country's ability in the field of docking between two spacecrafts and gather experience for developing the planned space station.