Editor’s Note: To celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, China Daily publishes a series of articles on adjustments and advances in fields and industries.
Three astronauts prepare to enter the station’s main module, adjusting to the first occupants and for the next steps.
China plans to make its last manned flight in June, sending 3 astronauts to the newly introduced central module of the national station and paintings on it for 3 months, according to a senior official.
Hao Chun, director of China’s manned area agency, said earlier this month that astronauts aboard the Shenzhou XII spacecraft will be the first occupants of the central module and will be tasked with painting to prepare for the next steps in the construction of the station.
They began final education for the next mission, he said, adding that other astronauts determined for long-term spaceflight were also receiving extensive education.
Ahead of the Shenzhou XII mission, the Tianzhou 2 shipping robot spacecraft is expected to be introduced in late May to anchor with the recently unmanned core module and then carry out autonomous refueling and refueling operations, according to Hao.
Tianzhou 2 was transported to the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan Province in mid-April, and Shenzhou XII arrived at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at the same time.
The official said that in September, the Tianzhou 3 shipment would dock with the main module and that next month a team of 3 team members would fly with the Shenzhou XIII to the module to stay there for six months.
In 2022, two giant area laboratories will be introduced to attach to the main module. In addition, two manned missions and two robot-sending flights will be carried out that year to continue the structure of the Chinese area station, which is expected to be completed and officially completed. will start trading towards the end of next year.
The maximum effort of China’s adventurous area, the multi-module area station, called Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, will consist of 3 main parts, a central module attached to two area laboratories, with a combined weight of approximately 70 metric tons. will work for about 15 years, project planners said.
The base module, called Tianhe, or Harmony of Heaven, was raised via a heavy Long March 5B carrier rocket at the Wenchang Launch Center on April 29.
The largest and heaviest spacecraft China has ever built, the module is 16. 6 meters long and 4. 2 meters in diameter. The machine weight, 22. 5 tons, is equivalent to the combined weight of 15 standard size cars. It has 3 parts: a connection segment, a life-and-control segment, and a resource segment.
The capsule will be at the center of Tiangong’s long-term operations, as astronauts will live and the entire station from within, and will also be used to host clinical and technological experiments.
Once completed, Tiangong will be inhabited through teams of 3 astronauts for periods of several months. During transfers to the new teams of 3 astronauts, the station will be able to house up to six astronauts.
The facility will dock with several manned and shipping spacecraft at the same time and will also connect with foreign spacecraft if they have a popular Chinese docking hatch.