天宫一号天外归来 Chinese bid farewell to space lab Tiangong-1

With Tiangong-1 re-entering Earth's atmosphere on Monday morning, China bid farewell(告别) to its first space lab(空间实验室), a pioneer(先驱) in the future of China's space exploration(探索).

The space lab re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at around 8:15 a.m. on Monday over the South Pacific, and was mostly(大部分) burnt up(燃烧) in the atmosphere, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) said.

It had successfully(成功) docked(对接) with Shenzhou-8, Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spacecraft, and was visited by six astronauts(宇航员), including two females.

Tiangong-1 was in service(服役) for four and a half years, two and a half years longer than its designed life, making important(重要的) contributions(贡献) to China's manned space cause(事业), paving the way for China to become the third country in the world to build a permanent(永久的) space station(空间站) around 2022.

词汇 Words:

[gào bié] 告别 farewell
[xiān qū] 先驱 pioneer
[tàn suǒ] 探索 exploration
[fú yì] 服役 service
[gòng xiàn] 贡献 contribution
[shì yè] 事业 cause
[rán shāo] 燃烧 burn up
[duì jiē] 对接 dock
[zhòng yào de] 重要的 important
[chéng gōng] 成功 successfully
[yǒng jiǔ de] 永久的 permanent

重点词汇 Key word:

告别 <动词 v.> 

• Say good bye to; bid farewell to
  E.g. Wǒ shì lái xiàng nǐ gàobié de。
  我是来向你告别的。
  I've come to say goodbye to you.

• Leave; take leave of; part from
  E.g. Wǒmen gàobié le Běijīng,yòu gǎnwǎng Shànghǎi。
  我们告别了北京,又赶往上海。
  We left Beijing and went on to Shanghai.

• Pay one's last respects to the deceased
  E.g. Xiàng yítǐ gàobié
  向遗体告别
  pay one's last respects to the deceased