China on Sunday launched the second of the three modules of the space station it is building, a crucial step in completing this ambitious project.
The module, named Wentian, which weighs about 20 tons and has no astronaut on board, was launched at 14:22 (3:22 GMT) by a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang launch center on the southern tropical island conveyed from Hainan from China.
Hundreds of people lined the surrounding beaches to take photos of the rocket as it rose into the sky amid a plume of white smoke.
After eight minutes of flight, “Wentian successfully separated from the rocket in order to bring itself into the planned orbit,” celebrated the CMSA space agency responsible for manned flights, which described the launch as a “complete success”.
This laboratory module, approximately 18 meters long and 4.2 meters in diameter, will dock with Tianhe, the station’s first module, which has been in orbit since April 2021.
The operation is challenging for the crew as it requires multiple highprecision maneuvers, some using a robotic arm.
“It’s the first time China has had to dock such large vehicles. It’s a delicate operation,” Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the HarvardSmithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States, told AFP.
Equipped with three sleeping places, bathrooms and kitchen, the new module also has sectors for scientific experiments. Wentian is also intended to serve as a platform to control the space station in the event of technical problems.
Dubbed Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”), but also known by the acronym CSS (Chinese Space Station), the space station is expected to be fully operational by the end of the year.
After Wentian this weekend, the three astronauts from the Shenzhou14 mission currently on the space station will first receive another laboratory module, Mengtian, later this month.
The station then has its final “T” shape. It will be similar in size to the former SovietRussian Mir space station. Their life expectancy is at least 10 years.
“The CSS will be completed in just a year and a half, the fastest pace in the history of a modular space station,” said Chen Lan, an analyst at Go Taikonauts.com, which specializes in China’s space program. “By comparison, the Mir and the International Space Station (ISS) took 10 and 12 years to build, respectively,” he added.
When Tiangong is completed, China will be able to conduct an inorbit crew swap for the first time. This exchange should take place in December, when astronauts from the Shenzhou14 mission currently on the space station make way for those from Shenzhou15.
China was forced to build its own station after the United States denied it participation on the ISS. The Asian giant has invested billions of dollars in its space program for several decades.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003. In 2019, the country placed a device on the far side of the moon, a globally unprecedented event. In 2020, China collected samples from the Earth satellite and sent a small robot to Mars the following year. China also plans to send humans to the moon by 2030.