Construction of theTiangong Space Stationwas only completed late last year , but China already has grown program to expand on its low Earth orbit task .
During an exhibition at the National Museum of China , the China Manned Space Engineering Office ( CMSEO ) bring out program to launch a new mental faculty to add to the Tiangong Space Station , Taiwanese Department of State mediareportedon Tuesday . The expansion module will bind to the three modules already in low Earth orbit , turning the T - shaped space post into a crossing .
The plan is for the multi - functional faculty to have six tying up ports , allowing more ballistic capsule to dock with the blank space station . China had previously announce that it would allowspace tourists to travel to Tiangong , so the supererogatory porthole will make out in ready to hand .
An illustration of the Tiangong Space Station.Illustration: Adrian Mann (AP)
In October , China launch the third moduleof Tiangong , discharge the T - shape social system of its three - faculty space station in low Earth orbital cavity . The first module of the space post , Tianhe , launched to orbit in April 2021 , while Wentian followed more than a twelvemonth subsequently in July 2022 . As it stand now , Tiangong is about a quarter of the size of the International Space Station .
CMSEO functionary also let out plans to begin hosting international astronauts on Tiangong , consort toSpaceNews . “ We are about to start pick out external astronaut to send to our place station and dribble out scientific experiment together , ” Chen Shanguang , a deputy chief designer of China ’s human spaceflight syllabus , is quote as telling reporters in China .
Seeing as how Tiangong is China ’s answer to the ISS , launching astronaut from dissimilar countries to the blank station is part of the design to found it as an external hub in scummy Earth orbit . The European Space Agency had planned to send some of its astronauts to Tiangong , but laterannouncedthat it did n’t have the budget or the political gullible brightness to do so .
In November 2022,China launched three of its astronautsto Tiangong as part of the Shenzhou-15 crew . The three - soul crew performed the first handover on board the space place , take over obligation from the Shenzhou-14 crew who had arrived at the space place in June .
Shenzhou-15 is set to spend about six months on display board the place place , preparing it for procedure . It ’s not absolved when China plans on sending its expanding upon module to Tiangong , but the land ’s home space program has made a lot of head in its plans to establish the place station ’s presence in low Earth domain .
More : NASA lack Plan for Ditching Space Station in an exigency
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