Two days after it launched from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island, China’s Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft successfully docked with the Tiangong-2 space station last April 22, Saturday.
This marked a major step toward the country’s goal of establishing its own manned space station by 2022, with President Xi Jinping prioritizing the advancement of China’s space program as part of national security plans.
Launch And Docking Details
The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply vehicle made the automated connection at 12:16 a.m. EDT on April 22, some 240 miles above Earth. It took off Thursday evening from the launch site in Hainan.
The unmanned cargo craft, weighing 28,700 pounds and is 34.8 feet long, boasts of a payload capacity of around 14,330 pounds.
The mission did not actually involve any crew supplies, but in the next couple of months it will see a number of automated docking attempts as well as fuel transfers to display the spacecraft’s capability. The Tianzhou-1’s pressurized compartment, for instance, contains a test load to simulate the weight necessary for resupplying a three-member crew for around a month in orbit.
The cargo vehicle, dubbed an “important technological basis” for building a Chinese space lab, is reportedly able to carry 6 tons of goods and 2 tons of fuel, as well as fly uncrewed for three months, Reuters reported.
Chinese Space Laboratory
The Tiangong-2 space laboratory launched September last year. Also known as “Heavenly Palace 2,” it became home to two taikonauts or Chinese astronauts when the Shenzhou 11 spacecraft docked with the station in October. This was the country’s longest manned space mission to date.
The one-room lab features the same design as Tiangong-1, China’s first station. Tiangong-2, however, is not expected to be occupied by humans again, as the next key step for China is to blast off the first module of the Tiangong-3 station, its first multi-module space outpost eyed for completion by 2022 with three major modules in total.
Tianhe 1, the Tiangong-3’s core module, is anticipated to launch on top of a Long March 5 rocket anytime in 2018. Tianzhou-2, the country’s next cargo ship, will follow shortly.
China’s Space Mission
“China is moving ahead very rapidly with its space exploration efforts,” said Xinhua News Agency, pointing to its first manned mission in 2003 that made it the third nation after Russia and the United States to send a human into space.
The Chinese news agency added that China was excluded from the International Space Station back in 2011 due to U.S. legislation, where U.S. officials reportedly prohibited NASA from working with the Asian superpower out of national security issues. It then proposed its own space lab as a sound replacement to the ISS as it ends its operations in 2024.
China’s space program, however, isn’t without a glitch. In 2013, for instance, its Jade Rabbit rover landed on the moon but ran into a few technical problems.
The U.S. Defense Department has argued that China is pushing forward with its space capabilities to bar other countries from deploying space-based assets during a crisis, but China is firm that it only maintains peaceful space ambitions.
