China unveils program to build space station in 2022

Shenzhou 14 crew arrives at the space station in 6 months

The crew of the Shenzhou 14 spacecraft will spend six months on the Tiangong space station to add two modules to the station – Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, said at a press conference. April 17th.

The core module of the Thien Cung space station was put into operation in April 2021. Plans call for completion of the space station’s construction this year.

The Chinese official said that, near the end of the Shenzhou 14 crewed mission, three other astronauts will be taken to the space station on the Shenzhou 15 mission with a stay on the station of six months. The two crews will spend the same time on the Tiangong station for three to five days – marking the first time the Chinese space station has had up to six astronauts operating at the same time.

On April 16, the Shenzhou 13 crew landed in the Gobi desert in Inner Mongolia, northern China.

In this mission, Chinese astronaut Wang Yaping performed the first spacewalk by a Chinese woman. Astronaut Vuong Yaping, commander Trac Chi Cuong and astronaut Diep Quang Phu also give physics lessons to high school students.

China is the third country to send astronauts into space after the former Soviet Union and the United States. Tiangong is China’s third space station after space stations launched in 2011 and 2016.

The Chinese government announced in 2020 that China’s first reusable spacecraft landed after a test flight, but no pictures or details have been released about the spacecraft yet. .

China’s space program sent its first astronauts into orbit in 2003, a robotic landing on the Moon in 2013 and on Mars in 2021. Chinese officials have also discussed the possibility of sending an astronaut. crew landed on the Moon.

Put 2 modules on the space station

Xinhua News Agency reported on April 17, this year, two experimental modules, Wentian and Mengtian, will be sent to the space station under construction by China. The two new modules will become the central working area for astronauts in orbit once the Thien Cung space station is completed.

At a press conference on the same day, the director of China’s Manned Space Administration Hao Chun said that the Wentian module will be brought to the Tiangong station by China in July while the Mong Thien module will be in October.

Yang Hong, chief designer of the space station system under the China Manned Space Program at the China Academy of Space Technology, said that both modules are equipped with a test chamber and mounting platform. for payloads outside the space station. In the two experimental modules, astronauts can study space science, space materials, cosmology and space exploration.

The Van Thien module is equipped with living facilities for astronauts similar to the core module Thien Ha (Tianhe), including 3 sleeping areas, 1 toilet and 1 kitchen. The Wentian and Tianhe modules can provide enough living space for six astronauts during the transition between the two crews.

A small mechanical arm is installed on the Wentian experimental module. This arm can work independently or in collaboration with the larger robotic arm of the Galactic core module to assist astronauts in operations outside the spacecraft.

To ensure the safety of the space station, the Wentian module plays a backup role for the management and control of the space station if there is a problem with the core module.

In the Mong Thien experimental module, there is a cargo cabin and an out-of-station platform deployed to serve future research projects outside the spacecraft. Scientific equipment that would need to be mounted on the outside would first be carried from the spacecraft into the cargo hold and then installed by the astronauts and mechanical arms onto the platform outside the space station.

Designer Yang Hong said that the Wentian experimental module has completed assembly and integration testing in Tianjin and is ready to launch. Chinese space station. The Mong Thien experimental module has partially completed assembly and testing and is in the next scheduled test phase.