China has been setting up its space station in orbit The space agency, just days after the successful Mars rover landing, is planning to send another mission that will carry supplies for the space station. This will be another step in its hustle to achieve its space ambitions.
China has invested billions in its space programme in a bid to brush shoulders with space exploration giants Russia and the US. The Chinese space agency has many ambitious projects including the new space station and landing unscrewed spacecraft on the Moon and the Red Planet.
China calls it a “heavenly place”
The agency was highly criticized by the US for its potentially dangerous breach of space safety by letting a massive rocket free fall uncontrollably on Earth. The upcoming mission dubbed the Tianzhou-2 cargo will take off aboard a 14-tonne Long March 7 rocket, and will carry supplies such as spacesuits and food to the core module of the Tiangong space station.
The word Tiangong means “heavenly place” in Chinese, and it will take around 10 more missions to complete its construction in orbit. Although the exact timing of the mission is still under wraps, the rocket is said to take off from the southern island of Hainan.
Construction in critical stage
China’s maritime authorities have issued a navigation alert that says a “rocket launching” between 1700 GMT and 1800 GMT on May 20 between 1 am and 2 am in China, as per the Japanese Coast Guard website. Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office said that the Tiangong space station’s building up process is in a “critical stage.”
The space station is expected to stay functional in low Earth orbit for up to 15 years. With the International Space Station expected to retire after 2028, China’s space station could become the only human outpost in Earth orbit. The new space station is also touted to feature Hubble telescope-like imaging capabilities.
Although China has said it’s open to foreign collaboration, there’s still very little known about such cooperation at the moment. ESA has already sent astronauts to China to train working inside the new space station.
