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China is preparing to launch three major missions in the next few months to initiate the construction phase of the country’s space station project.The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) is finalizing work on rockets which will launch the first space station module, a cargo and refueling craft and a crewed mission.To get more China latest news, you can visit shine news official website. The launches will be the first of 11 planned missions to construct a three-module Chinese space station.
The activity marks the beginning of the end phase of a project approved in 1992 to develop human spaceflight capabilities and establish a long-term crewed presence in low Earth orbit.A 849-metric-ton Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket will launch the roughly 22-metric-ton Tianhe space station core module this spring.
The launcher is currently undergoing final work in a factory in the northern port city Tianjin. The rocket components will soon be transported by Yuanwang cargo ships to Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan, according to CMSA, China’s human spaceflight agency. A launch date has not been released but the mission will likely take place around two months after the arrival of the Long March 5B to Wenchang. Previous Long March 5 series missions have required such a period for launch preparations. “We will soon complete the construction of China’s first long-term orbital crewed space station meeting advanced world levels, and will carry out large-scale space scientific research on it,” Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China’s human spaceflight program, told CCTV recently. “We firmly believe that it will play a major role in the forefront of scientific exploration of humanity and also in the development of our space technology,” Zhou said.Launch of the core module was planned for 2018 with subsequent modules to follow around 2020 and 2022. However a launch failure and subsequent issues with the Long March 5 rocket means China is now condensing the schedule into an intensive two-year period. The 16.6-meter-long, 4.2-meter-diameter Tianhe core module was developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and is already at Wenchang. It underwent fit checks with the first flight model of the Long March 5B, which features China’s largest payload fairing, in early 2020.
The module will provide the main living quarters for three astronauts for periods of around six months. It includes a docking hub and will also control the station’s orbit and attitude.Tianhe is planned to be inserted directly into a low Earth orbit with an apogee of around 370 kilometers and inclined by 41 degrees. A test flight for the mission in April 2020 saw the first Long March 5B launch a prototype new generation crew spacecraft. The new, uncrewed craft was loaded with propellant to simulate a payload similar in mass to a space station module. Notably the rocket’s large core stage reached orbital velocity and uncontrolled reentry off the west coast of Africa, passing over New York just minutes earlier. A similar event can thus be expected for the upcoming launch. After completion in 2022 the Chinese Space Station will be joined by a co-orbiting, Hubble-class space telescope. The Xuntian survey telescope will be able to dock with the CSS for maintenance and repairs. The space station itself could also be expanded from three to six modules.
The Wall