A Chinese space carrier equipped with equipment for the future space station of the People’s Republic of China successfully docked at the station’s base unit on Sunday. The new China News Agency (Xinhua) quoted the US space agency (CMSI) as saying that the unmanned tanker Tianzhu-2 had fuel, food and other materials for the station on board.
On Saturday, the tanker set off with a “Langer March-7” launch vehicle, ten days late. The mission was postponed for technical reasons. It is scheduled to prepare for the arrival of three astronauts, as China calls its space travelers, on the space station scheduled for June.
At the end of April, China put the “Tianhe” module, the first and central unit of the new space station, into orbit. Surrounds Land At a distance of 350 to 390 kilometers. The space station should be operational next year.
International use as with the International Space Station (ISS) is unplanned. Beijing However, he announced that he was open to foreign cooperation in space research. The Chinese space station, which will eventually be called “Tiangong” (Heavenly Palace), will be less than half the size of the International Space Station with a capacity of 240 tons. The “Sky Palace” is more comparable to the previous Russian space station “Mir,” say experts.
Preparations since 1992
With its previous space testers, Tiangong 1 and Tiangong 2, China slowly made its way toward the complex project first envisioned specifically in 1992 in the planning of the space program.
China wants to become a superpower not only on Earth but also in space and is investing billions in its space programs.
Recently, the People’s Republic succeeded in a mission to Mars: the Zhurong rover landed on the red planet two weeks ago. An ambitious mission to the moon ended in December; A capsule containing two kilograms of samples returned safely to Earth.