Tiangong Space Station is China’s first long-term space station and the core of the Third Step of the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA)
Tiangong Space Station A Dream Come True For China
The first module Tianhe (Harmony of the Heavens) core module was launched on the 29th of April 2021. It was followed by the Wentian module (Quest for the Heavens) on the 24th of July 2022. On 31st Oct 2022, the last and final module Mengtian (Dreaming of the Heavens) was launched successfully. The three modules together have a combined mass of 100 Tons, which is about a fifth of that of the ISS (International Space Station)
The Tiangong Space Station can accommodate 6 persons at the same time. The Chinese Space Program plans to have the Tiangong Space Station in operation for ten to fifteen years.
The Tiangong Space Station has 23 experiment racks in its pressurized environment. The ultra-cold atom experiment aims to achieve a temperature of 10 Picokelvins which would break the record of the lowest temperature ever achieved by humanity and surpass a similar experiment that NASA is conducting on the ISS.
The goal is to produce the coldest atomic clock with the most precise time and not lose one second of the time in hundreds of millions of years.
China has sent 3 Shenzhou fourteen astronauts to the station for 6 months. They are Cal Xuzhe, Chen Dong, and Liu Yang. Liu Yang is china’s first woman to go to space. After landing at the station the astronauts spoke to their counterparts on earth.
Shenzhou 15, will send the next set of astronauts by Dec. it will take off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, in the Gobi Desert.
China is also preparing its rocket Long March 7, to carry goods and essentials to support life on the Tiangong Space Station.
