China preparing to launch the first module of its new, larger space station
The rocket carrying the first module for China’s own national space station is now on its launchpad at the country’s Wenchang spaceport, the journal Spacenews has reported. The rocket was rolled out to the launchpad early on Friday local time (that is, some time late Thursday South African time) and is expected to be launched on or around Thursday (April 29), although this has not been officially confirmed.
The rocket is a Long March 5B, and this will be the second launch for this expendable design. Its payload will be the core module, with its attached docking hub, of the Tianhe space station. This core module is 16.6 m in length and 4.2 m in diameter. The mass of the payload is 22 t.
Tianhe means ‘harmony of the heavens’ and it will be a three-module space station with a total mass of 66 t. It is planned to be completed by the end of next year and its orbit will have a maximum altitude (apogee) of about 370 km.
The space station will be crewed by teams of three astronauts who will serve aboard it for six months at a time. It will be used for both national and international projects. Areas and disciplines to be covered will include astronomy, biotechnology, microgravity combustion, microgravity fluid physics, space life science, space medicine and space technologies.
Should the Tianhe core module and docking node be successfully placed in orbit, it will be visited next month by a Tianzhou automated cargo spacecraft, which will supply the core module with propellant. Subsequently, in June, a Shenzhou spacecraft will carry the first astronauts to the embryonic space station.
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