3 Chinese astronauts enter Tiangong space station module

• China successfully launched three astronauts on a six-month mission to complete the construction of the country’s space station.

• A Long March-2F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert in northwest China with the spacecraft Shenzhou-14 and its three astronauts — Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe.

• Hours after they were launched into the designated orbit by the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft, which later docked with Tiangong space station’s  orbiting module called Tianhe and cargo crafts attached to it, the three astronauts entered for a six-month stay, during which they will be completing its remaining construction.

• The trio will cooperate with the ground team to complete the assembly and construction of the Tiangong space station, developing it from a single-module structure into a national space laboratory with three modules — the core module named Tianhe, and two lab modules, Wentian and Mengtian.

China’s space station programme

• Work on the space station programme began a decade ago with the launch of a space lab Tiangong-1 in 2011, and later, Tiangong-2 in 2016.

• Both helped China test the programme’s space rendezvous and docking capabilities.

• China aims to become a major space power by 2030. By 2045, it hopes to establish a programme operating thousands of space flights a year and carrying tens of thousands of tonnes of cargo and passengers.

• It has ramped up its space programme with visits to the Moon, the launch of an uncrewed probe to Mars and the construction of its own space station.

• China began constructing its three-module space station in April 2021 with the launch of Tianhe — the first and biggest of the station’s three modules. 

• Once ready, China will be the only country to own a space station. The International Space Station (ISS) of Russia is a collaborative project of several countries.

• The China Space Station (CSS) is also expected to be a competitor to the ISS built by Russia. Observers say that the CSS may become the sole space station to remain in orbit once the aging ISS retires in the coming years.

• The significant feature of China’s under-construction space station is its two robotic arms, especially the long one over which the US has previously expressed concern over its ability to grab objects including satellites from space.

• The 10-metre-long arm was in action previously seen in action successfully grabbing and moving a 20 tonne Tianzhou-2 cargo ship in a test.

• One of the noteworthy tasks for the Shenzhou-14 crew is to test and operate the large and small mechanical arms.

• The space station is designed to be a versatile space lab, capable of accommodating 25 experiment cabinets for scientific exploration.

• The lab modules Wentian and Mengtian are to be launched in July and October, respectively.

• Wentian will be equipped to support life science research while Mengtian will focus on microgravity experiments. 

• Wentian will also have an airlock cabin for extravehicular trips, as well as short-term living quarters for astronauts during crew rotations.

• Wentian lab can simulate variable gravity environments to support the comparative study on the biological growth mechanism in different gravity conditions.

• The Mengtian lab module will be equipped with experiment cabinets to study the effects of microgravity, covering the physics of fluids, material science, combustion science, and basic physics.

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