Early Thursday, a Long March 5B rocket – currently the most powerful Chinese launch vehicle – launched from Wenchang and carried the first major component of an ambitious new modular space station.
The station module known as Tianhe (Harmony of Heaven) marks the next big step in China’s program for manned spaceflight in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). China is banned from participating in the International Space Station (ISS) under US law, which prohibits the two countries from collaborating in space, and has been developing its own LEO capabilities for over a decade.
As part of the Shenzhou program, the company launched its first space travelers (called taikonauts) in 2003 and 2005 with a vehicle based on the Russian Soyuz design. A technology-sharing agreement with Russia also allowed China to launch its first space station in 2011: a small space base with a module known as Tiangong-1. A similar platform, Tiangong-2, followed in 2016. Both have since desorbed.
Tianhe is a big upgrade from those little predecessors. The core module houses the life support for three taikonauts as well as power and drive systems. A number of docking ports allow crewed spacecraft to visit the station, but also to make room for future modules (two more large lab sections named Mengtian and Wentian are planned). When completed, the modular station will weigh around sixty-six tons – smaller than the ISS but much more powerful than the prototype Tiangong stations. Tianhe also includes an airlock and off-vehicle activity (EVA) hatch that allows Taikonauts to perform space walks.
Artist’s impression of the completed station with the three core modules, a crew vehicle (Shenzhou) and a cargo vehicle (Tianzhou). Photo credit: Sagittarius A (Wikimedia Commons)
Tianhe is currently orbiting lowest at approximately 360 kilometers and 400 kilometers highest, although further maneuvers to elevate the orbit are likely to take place in the coming days to get the station into its operational position. As with the ISS, regular boosts are required to prevent drag from dragging the station back to Earth.
Despite the political obstacles preventing cooperation with the US, other countries are keen to cooperate with the Chinese space program on the station. Several European experiments are already planned in the coming years, and as early as 2019 nine experiments from seventeen countries were selected to fly on the station under the auspices of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).
The first taikonauts will arrive in Tianhe in June for a three-month stay in orbit to begin construction and operations. Three more construction missions are planned by 2022, followed by longer-term scientific missions. The completed station is expected to take at least ten years.
Tianhe’s launch site in Wenchang on Hainan Island is one of China’s newest spaceports and hosts its first launch in 2016. It is closer to the equator than any other Chinese launch site and provides access to orbits not available for the more northerly locations (although taikonauts visiting the station will instead depart from the Jiuquan launch center in the Gobi Desert). The station’s other modules will also be launched from Wenchang, which will be upgraded to support the latest variants of the Long March family of missiles: those designed as heavy-duty vehicles for interplanetary missions. China’s first robotic Mars mission, Tianwen-1, was launched from Wenchang last year.
Featured image: Tianhe before the start. Photo credit: CNS (Wikimedia Commons).
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