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China’s space programme: Tianzhou 4 readies for mission to help build space station
- The launch is the first of six planned this year and will also carry supplies for materials science, space medicine and microgravity experiments
- The cargo spaceship will remain docked with Tianhe core module until around the end of the year when the Shenzhou 14 crew return to Earth
Ling Xin in BeijingPublished: 8:28pm, 9 May, 2022
Lifting off early on Tuesday morning on a Long March 7 rocket from the southern island of Hainan, Tianzhou 4 will dock with the space station’s Tianhe core module to supply enough fuel to maintain its orbital altitude. It will also deliver fresh provisions for the station’s next three-astronaut crew who are expected to arrive at Tianhe in June for a six-month stay.
Tianzhou 4 is also carrying supplies and equipment for materials science, space medicine and microgravity experiments to be conducted by the astronauts.
A standard Tianzhou spacecraft measures 10.6 metres long and 3.3 metres wide (34.8 by 10.8 feet). It has a total mass of 12,900kg (28,400 pounds) and can carry as much as 6,500kg of cargo.
A source familiar with China’s Manned Space Programme said the nearest launch window for Tianzhou 4 was around 2am Tuesday. CCTV will start its live national broadcast of the event at 1am.
The Tianzhou 4 launch would be the first of six planned launches this year to complete the space station assembly by the end of the year, said Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office.
“2022 is a decisive year for the construction of the space station,” Hao said at a press conference in April, one day after the Shenzhou 13 astronauts returned to Earth from a record-breaking six-month stay aboard Tianhe.
“This year also marks the 30th anniversary for China’s Manned Space Programme. The completion of the space station and the national space laboratory is an important goal of the three-step strategy of China’s Manned Space Programme,” he said.
The China Manned Space Programme was formally approved by the Standing Committee of Politburo on September 21, 1992, and has been known as Project 921. It was designed to be implemented in three phases: first crewed spacecraft; then space laboratories; and eventually a multi-module space station.
The assembly of the space station began only last year after delays caused by a major launch failure of the heavy-lift rocket Long March 5 — the only rocket China could use to send the 22-tonne Tianhe into orbit.
China has been conducting intensive launches to meet its original timeline for the space station construction.
Following Tianzhou 4, it plans to launch the Shenzhou 14 crewed mission in June, and two laboratory modules – Wentian and Mengtian – in July and October. They are planned to dock permanently with Tianhe to form a T-shape structure.
Like Tianhe, both Wentian and Mengtian will be equipped with scientific experiment racks and exterior docking points for research, ranging from space physiology to life sciences, fluid physics and astronomy.
The last two missions for the year will be the Tianzhou 5 cargo mission and Shenzhou 15 astronaut mission.
According to China Radio International, Tianzhou 4 will remain docked with Tianhe until around the end of the year when the Shenzhou 14 crew return to Earth.
Once complete, the Chinese Space Station will join the International Space Station as the only operational space stations in orbit.
Less than 2hrs to launch.
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