Chinese officials says that China will launch a unmanned spacecraft on Tuesday that will dock with a capsule already orbiting the Earth.
A rocket carrying Shenzhou 8 will blast off early in the morning from the Gobi Desert and rendezvous with the Tiangong 1.
The space capsule was launched in late September and has already been manoeuvred into position.
China is practising docking in order to build a space station by 2020.
Shenzhou 8 is due to be launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu province at 05:58 (21:58 GMT).
The docking - which will take place 343km above the Earth - will happen within two days of the launch.
There should be two other attempts to dock with the capsule in cumming year, at least one of which will be manned.
Astronauts - called taikonauts in China - are already being trained for that mission, according to the manned space programme's spokeswoman Wu Ping.
China is confident to built and launch a space station by the end of the decade and these docking missions are part of that process.
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