China intends to complete the construction of the Tiangong National Space Station with a new crew, which will go into space on Sunday, June 5. This is reported by the Associated Press with reference to the Chinese manned space agency.
Taikonauts will have to add two laboratory modules “Wentian” and “Mengtian” to the base unit “Tianhe” in six months.
The launch of the crew is scheduled from the launch pad of the Jiuquan Cosmodrome in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia using the Long March-2F launch vehicle. The team includes taikonauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang, Cai Jiuzhe. Chen Dong is appointed commander of the ship.
To date, two crews of three people each have already visited the station. The first crew, Shenzhou-12, was at the station from June to September 2021, the second, Shenzhou-13, spent six months at the station from October 2021 to April 2022.
The base module “Tianhe” created by the Chinese orbital station “Tiangong” was put into orbit on April 29 last year. The creation of a full-fledged orbital station should be completed in 2022.
The total weight of the Tiangong, which rotates in a near-Earth orbit at a height of 400 km, will reach 90 tons after its creation. It is one-fifth the size of the International Space Station and will be able to accommodate three crew members (and up to six when changing crews). The life of the Chinese space station is expected to be 10 years.
It is planned that as an integral part of the station, the Xuntian autonomous module with a telescope with a mirror diameter of two meters will be launched into orbit. It will maneuver in orbit with its propulsion system and occasionally dock at the station for refueling and maintenance.