- China is setting its sights on a multi-phased space station construction program. Credit: CNSA
Several Chinese news agencies are reporting the liftoff later this year of that country’s unmanned space module, the Tiangong-1. The hardware is dedicated to kick-starting a multi-phase space station program.
Tiangong-1 – translated as “Heavenly Palace” — will serve as a docking station for an unpiloted Shenzhou-8 spacecraft, to be followed by piloted Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 vehicles.
The 8.5-ton Tiangong-1 module is slated to serve as a platform to test rendezvous and docking techniques by year’s end. Eventually it would be converted into a space laboratory where astronauts can live and carry out scientific and technological research.
China formally green-lighted its manned space station program last October. The plan is to complete construction of a “relatively large”, 60-ton manned space laboratory in the 2020 -2022 time frame.
Meanwhile, two batches of Chinese astronauts have been recruited – a cadre that includes women — to operate the space station.
Long March V: Big booster
In related news, China’s Global Times and Xinhua news outlets have reported that work is progressing on the first phase of a rocket industrial base in Tianjin’s Binhai New Area.
Nearly two dozen plants are soon to be in full-operation. These facilities will churn out a variety of rockets for China’s lunar probe, space station initiative, and other space endeavors.
According to Liang Xiaohong, deputy head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, work is also underway on a Long March V.
Liang said the Long March V would have a maximum low Earth-orbit payload capacity of 25 tons and high Earth-orbit payload capacity of 14 tons.
By Leonard David