BEIJING (AP) — Three Chinese astronauts docked at their country’s space station early Wednesday morning. There, he overlaps with his three crew members already on board for several days, expanding the facility to its maximum size.
Docking with the Amagu station took place at 5:42 am on Wednesday. It is about six and a half hours after the Shenzhou 15 spacecraft was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center atop the Long March 2nd Carrier Her rocket.
The six-month mission, commanded by Fei Junlong and crewed by Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu, will be the last in the station’s construction phase, according to the Chinese Manned Space Administration. has been docked Earlier this month, one of the final steps in China’s effort to maintain a constant manned presence in orbit..
The crew of Shenzhou 15 will work with the existing three-man crew on the Tiangong Station for several days before returning to Earth after a six-month mission.
Fei, 57, is a veteran of the 2005 four-day Shenzhou 6 mission. Deng and Zhang make their first space flight.
Currently, the station has been expanded to its maximum size, with three modules and three spacecraft attached, with a total mass of about 100 tons.
Tengu can accommodate six astronauts at once, and handover takes about a week. This is the station’s first orbital crew rotation.
China has yet to reveal what further work is needed to complete the station. Next year, we plan to launch the Xuntian Space Telescope. It is not part of Tiangong, but it orbits the station in turn and can be docked occasionally for maintenance.
Excluding the accompanying spacecraft, the Chinese station weighs about 66 tons, a fraction of the International Space Station’s about 465 tons, which launched its first module in 1998.
With a lifespan of 10 to 15 years, Tiangong could one day become the only working space station if the International Space Station retires as planned in the next few years.
China’s manned space program officially celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, but it really took off in 2003, when China became the third manned spaceflight on its own resources after the United States and Russia. became the country of
The program is run by the People’s Liberation Army, the military arm of the ruling Communist Party, and proceeds almost entirely without outside support.US excludes China from International Space Station China has limited cooperation with other space agencies because of the military ties to their programs.
China also has a record of successful unmanned missions. The Yutu 2 rover was the first to explore the lesser-known far side of the Moon.
China’s Chang’e 5 rover will also return lunar rocks to Earth in December 2020 for the first time since the 1970s, and another Chinese rover is searching for evidence of life on Mars.
NASA is pushing ahead with the Artemis Lunar Exploration Program, which aims to send four astronauts to the moon in 2024 and land humans on the moon as early as 2025, though no timeline is given. No, but officials say they are considering an eventual crewed mission to the moon.
China’s space program has been largely successful, but it has also sparked controversy.Beijing has dismissed complaints that it allowed rocket stages to fall uncontrolled to Earth After accusing NASA of “not meeting responsible standards for space debris”. In that case, some of the Chinese rockets landed in the Indian Ocean.
China is also reportedly developing a top-secret spacecraft, and its increasing space capabilities are a feature of the latest Pentagon defense strategy, and the plan represents China’s “holistic approach to joint warfare.” said to be an element of
