China Launches Space Lab to America the Beautiful

Weird. China took its first step toward building a space station last night and while the launch of the unmanned Tiangong-1 space lab went smoothly, there was a major slip-up in the propaganda department. State broadcaster CCTV's launch coverage included an animation of the module docking with a crew capsule—to the tune of America the Beautiful, the Guardian reports.

"I don't know how to answer your question," a spokesman for CCTV's propaganda department said when asked why the American patriotic tune was chosen. "I cannot help you." China plans to send up another unmanned module to dock with the Tiangong lab later this year and if the mission is successful, manned missions will follow in 2012. (More China stories.)