China’s permanent space station- Main part launched
China’s permanent space station seems to gain momentum. It has launched its first module for its permanent space station. The space station intends to have a long-term human settlement in space. The name of the module for China’s space station is “Tianhe” which means “Heavenly Harmony“. And it is launched from Wenchang in the Hainan Province of China. The primary module called, “China Manned Space” is just the first leg of the mission. The other two modules will have names, Wentian, meaning “Quest for the Heavens” and Mengtian, meaning “Dreaming of the Heavens“.
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China’s permanent space station: Three-step strategy
The core module just launched is the one, where astronauts will stay in space for up to six months. And the upcoming modules will have 10 launches. These launches will include two modules where the team will conduct experiments, four modules for the cargo, and four missions with crews. China intends to make the space station fully functional in 2022. The T-shaped China’s space station would expectedly weigh nearly 66 tons, which is much lighter than the ISS. It has also released the recently gathered lunar images, which are the most recent in 40 years. The mission also includes landing a rover over Mars in the next month as one of the mission’s parts. At least 12 astronauts are already under training to fly and become inhabitants of space. These include women, a few new bees, and mostly the veterans from the previous missions of China.
Messages from prominent members
Many prominent Chinese personalities, including Premier Li Keqiang, witnessed the live launch of the module. And the head of the ruling Communist Party, Xi Jinping, quoted, “an important leading project for constructing a powerful country in science and technology and aerospace.” It is also reported that the mission is expected to add a lot of China’s Space exploration history, sources including Physics.org reported.
