Tiangong Space Station

Tiangong Space Station Latest News

Pakistan is set to send its first astronaut into space under a cooperation programme with China, with one of two Pakistani candidates expected to join a short-duration mission aboard China’s Tiangong space station as a payload specialist.

About Tiangong Space Station

• The Tiangong Space Station, translating to ‘Sky Palace’, is a Chinese-owned and operated permanently crewed space station in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
• It represents the third and final step of China’s Manned Space Program. 
• The first module of the space station was launched in April 2021, following two precursor missions, Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2. 
• The station consists of a core module known as Tianhe, which connects two science modules, Wentian and Mengtian, as well as a planned space telescope module, Xuntian.
  • Xuntian is a huge, Hubble-like space telescope, which will share the space station’s orbit and be able to dock with it for repairs, maintenance, and possibly upgrades.  
• Tiangong orbits Earth at an altitude between 340 to 450 kilometers, approximately the same orbital height as the International Space Station (ISS).  
• Tiangong is much smaller than the ISS, with only three modules compared with 16 modules on the ISS. 
• Tiangong is also considerably lighter than the ISS, which weighs about 400 tons (450 metric tons); the Chinese station is about 20% as massive.
• But unlike the ISS, Tiangong is operated by a single nation. 
• The station typically hosts three astronauts at a time for six-month stays. It can support six astronauts at a time during crew handovers.
• China plans to expand Tiangong with additional modules in the coming years. 
• The aims of the Tiangong Space Station are to:
  • Build a long-term, reliable space station in orbit.
  • Guarantee the long-term health and safety of stationed astronauts.
  • Provide conditions for scientific and technological experiments in space.
• The station serves as an in-orbit laboratory with 23 enclosed experiment racks, each covering a different proposed experiment in the fields of:
  • Space life sciences and biotechnology
  • Microgravity fluid physics and combustion
  • Material science in space
  • Fundamental physics in microgravity
• The space station also features platforms for exposed and unpressurised external experiments.

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