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Agence France-PresseApril 30, 2021 11:56:29 AMT
On Thursday, China launched the first module of the Heavenly Palace Space Station, a milestone in Beijing’s ambitious plan to create a permanent human presence in space. Billions of dollars have been poured into space exploration as China seeks to reflect its growing global position and growing technological power by following in the footsteps of the United States, Russia and Europe. The Tianhe nuclear module, which features life-support equipment and astronauts’ living quarters, was launched Thursday from Wenchang in China’s tropical Hainan Province on a long March 5B rocket, state television showed.
This image, taken from undated video footage used by Chinese CCTV via AP video, shows a rendering of a Chinese space station module. China has launched a nuclear module on Thursday, April 29, 2021 for the first permanent space station to receive astronauts in the long term. (Via CCTV AP video)
In a congratulatory message on Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the space station to play a key role in “building a great science and technology nation.”
The Tiangong Space Station, whose name means “Heavenly Palace,” is expected to be operational by 2022 after about 11 missions to deliver more modules and assemble them into orbit.
A live image by state broadcaster CCTV showed space program workers screaming as the rocket made its way through the atmosphere, throwing flames from the launch site.
Crowds wearing sun hats and smartphone cameras gathered under the coconut trees of a nearby beach to watch the launch as the band played in photos released by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
“The palace in the sky is no longer just a romantic fantasy of ancient people,” the CCTV anchor said.
The completed station is similar to the Soviet “Mir” station, which toured the country from the 1980s to 2001.
The Chinese space station is expected to remain in low orbit at an altitude of 400 to 450 kilometers from Earth for a lifetime of about 15 years.
The completed station, weighing just over 90 tons, is about a quarter the size of the International Space Station.
The station has two other modules for scientific research and is equipped with solar panels as well as experimental equipment, including an ultra-cold atomic experimental device, according to the Chinese Astronaut Association.
The core module will provide three astronauts with 50 cubic feet of living space equipped with advanced communications equipment that allows astronauts to browse websites “no differently than ordinary people using the Internet and telephones on Earth,” Bai Linhou, deputy director of the station, told CCTV.
China launched the Tiangong-1 Laboratory, the first prototype module designed to lay the foundation for a permanently occupied station, in September 2011.
The laboratory disintegrated after returning to the Earth’s atmosphere in 2018, two years after it ceased operations.
Another laboratory, Tiangong-2, was launched into orbit in 2016.
Space objectives
The International Space Station – a collaboration between the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan – is set to retire after 2024, although NASA has said it could potentially stay in operation after 2028.
In this photo, published by China’s Xinhua News Agency, a long March 5B rocket carrying a module to a Chinese space station will take off from the Wenchang spacecraft launch site in Wenchang, southern China’s Hainan Province on Thursday, April 29, 2021. China has launched a nuclear module on (Through Ju Zhenhua / Xinhua AP)
Following the retirement of the ISS, which received its first crew in 2000, China’s Tiangong could become the only space station in Earth’s orbit.
Beijing has no specific plans to use its space station for international cooperation, such as the ISS, but Chinese space authorities have said they are open to foreign cooperation, although the scope of cooperation is still unclear.
The European Space Agency has sent astronauts to China to receive training in order to be ready to work inside the Chinese space station since its launch.
China also announced in March that it plans to build a separate lunar space station with Russia.
Designed either on the surface of the Moon or in orbit, the facility would have experimental research facilities and would be Beijing’s largest international space cooperation project to date.
The earth has traveled a long distance from its first satellite in 1970.
It put the first Chinese “magician” into space in 2003 and landed on the back of the Moon of the Chang’e-4 robot in 2019 – the historic first.
China’s space program sent a probe into orbit on Mars earlier this year. The wheeled probe is expected to touch the surface of Mars in mid-May.
Also read: China will begin construction of a three-person space station, the first launch will take place soon
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