{"id":16392,"date":"2026-09-29T11:21:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T05:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=16392"},"modified":"2026-09-29T15:48:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:18:57","slug":"tiangong-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/tiangong-space-station\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiangong Space Station"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Tiangong Space Station Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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\u2019s Tiangong space station as a payload specialist. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Tiangong Space Station<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Tiangong Space Station, translating to \u2018Sky Palace\u2019, is a <\/span><b>Chinese-owned and operated<\/b> <b>permanently crewed space station<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in <\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/low-earth-orbit\/\" target=\"_blank\">Low Earth Orbit (LEO)<\/a>.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It represents the third and final step of China\u2019s Manned Space Program.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>first modul<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">e of the space station was <\/span><b>launched <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in April <\/span><b>2021<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, following two precursor missions, Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The station consists of a <\/span><b>core module<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> known as <\/span><b>Tianhe<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which <\/span><b>connects two science modules, Wentian and Mengtia<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">n, as well as a <\/span><b>planned space telescope module, Xuntian.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Xuntian <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is a huge, <\/span><b>Hubble-like space telescope,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which will <\/span><b>share the space station&#8217;s orbit<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and be <\/span><b>able to dock with it <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for repairs, maintenance, and possibly upgrades.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tiangong<\/span><b> orbits Earth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at an altitude between <\/span><b>340 to 450 kilometers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, approximately the <\/span><b>same orbital height as <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the <\/span><b>International Space Station (ISS).\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Tiangong <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is<\/span><b> much smaller than the ISS<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with only three modules compared with 16 modules on the ISS.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Tiangong <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is also <\/span><b>considerably lighter than the ISS, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which weighs about 400 tons (450 metric tons); the Chinese station is about 20% as massive.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But <\/span><b>unlike the ISS, Tiangong <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is <\/span><b>operated by a single natio<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">n.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The station typically <\/span><b>hosts three astronaut<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s at a time for <\/span><b>six-month stays<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It can <\/span><b>support six astronauts at a time during crew handovers.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">China plans to expand Tiangong with additional modules in the coming years.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>aims <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the Tiangong Space Station are to:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Build a long-term, reliable space station<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in orbit.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guarantee the long-term health and safety of stationed astronauts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Provide conditions for scientific and technological experiments in space.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The station serves as an <\/span><b>in-orbit laboratory<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with 23 <\/span><b>enclosed experiment racks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, each covering a different proposed experiment in the fields of:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Space life sciences and biotechnology<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Microgravity fluid physics and combustion<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Material science in space<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fundamental physics in microgravity<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The space station also features platforms for exposed and unpressurised external experiments.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outlookindia.com\/international\/pakistans-first-astronaut-what-will-the-china-backed-mission-do-in-space\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>OUT<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tiangong Space Station is a Chinese-owned and operated permanently crewed space station in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Read more about Tiangong Space Station, Launch Date, Aim, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":47066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,382,22,23],"class_list":["post-16392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-tiangong-space-station","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126796,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392\/revisions\/126796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}