China Launches Final Module To Complete Tiangong Space Station (space.com) 18
The third and final module has arrived at China's Tiangong space station. Space.com reports: The Mengtian module launched to Earth orbit atop a Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket from Wenchang, south China, at 3:37 a.m. EDT (0737 GMT and 3:37 p.m Beijing time) on Monday (Oct. 31), according to the state-run outlet Xinhua News. Mengtian arrived at Tiangong as planned about 13 hours after liftoff, according to the China Manned Space Agency. The launch marked China's ninth space station-related mission since sending the Tianhe core module into orbit in April last year.
Mengtian, whose name means "Dreaming of the Heavens," is a 58.7-foot-long (17.9 meters) and roughly 48,500-pound (22 metric tons) spacecraft designed mainly to host an array of science racks and experiments. Equipment installed on board Mengtian will be used for experiments related to microgravity, fluid physics, materials science, combustion science, fundamental physics and more. The docking of Mengtian with Tiangong marks the end of the space station's assembly phase and the start of full operations, Chinese space officials have said. Mengtian's arrival allows China to realize a vision for a space station approved way back in 1992.
The Tiangong space station consists of Tianhe, Mengtian and a module called Wentian. The T-shaped Tiangong will host three astronauts for six months at a time, or six crew members for a brief time during crew handovers. Tiangong's first crew handover is expected before the end of the year when the ongoing Shenzhou 14 mission astronauts welcome aboard the new Shenzhou 15 crew, who will launch on a Long March 2F rocket from the Gobi Desert. Ahead of this, China will launch the Tianzhou 5 cargo mission to Tiangong in November to deliver supplies to support the new crew expedition. [...] The space station will also support a powerful survey space telescope named Xuntian that China plans to launch as soon as late 2023. The Hubble-class observatory will operate in a similar orbit to that of Tiangong, meaning it will be able to dock at the station for refueling, upgrades and repairs. Meanwhile, China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, said earlier this year that Tiangong could be opened to tourism in the future.
Mengtian, whose name means "Dreaming of the Heavens," is a 58.7-foot-long (17.9 meters) and roughly 48,500-pound (22 metric tons) spacecraft designed mainly to host an array of science racks and experiments. Equipment installed on board Mengtian will be used for experiments related to microgravity, fluid physics, materials science, combustion science, fundamental physics and more. The docking of Mengtian with Tiangong marks the end of the space station's assembly phase and the start of full operations, Chinese space officials have said. Mengtian's arrival allows China to realize a vision for a space station approved way back in 1992.
The Tiangong space station consists of Tianhe, Mengtian and a module called Wentian. The T-shaped Tiangong will host three astronauts for six months at a time, or six crew members for a brief time during crew handovers. Tiangong's first crew handover is expected before the end of the year when the ongoing Shenzhou 14 mission astronauts welcome aboard the new Shenzhou 15 crew, who will launch on a Long March 2F rocket from the Gobi Desert. Ahead of this, China will launch the Tianzhou 5 cargo mission to Tiangong in November to deliver supplies to support the new crew expedition. [...] The space station will also support a powerful survey space telescope named Xuntian that China plans to launch as soon as late 2023. The Hubble-class observatory will operate in a similar orbit to that of Tiangong, meaning it will be able to dock at the station for refueling, upgrades and repairs. Meanwhile, China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, said earlier this year that Tiangong could be opened to tourism in the future.
Some degree of fallout (Score:5, Informative)
While China is celebrating the successful launch of Mengtian, there will likely be some degree of fallout from the mission. The huge first stages of the three previously launched Long March 5B rockets have entered orbit and made high-profile uncontrolled reentries around a week after launch. The fiery first stage reentry from the Wentian module launch in July was spotted by onlookers in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Heads up.
Re:Some degree of fallout (Score:4, Insightful)
made high-profile uncontrolled reentries around a week after launch.
I'm pretty sure you'll find all uncontrolled reentries are high-profile.
It sounds like the CCP is trying to create the concept of low-or-no-profile uncontrolled reentries by pushing the limits of what it can get away with not-doing. ie, if it does it often enough, it won't be news, and be low-profile.
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It's got beyond the point where it's become obvious we need some better ground rules for putting stuff in space. That goes for Starlink and similar massive constellations too.
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Thinking about this, I guess from the CCP's point of view it's only fair. The USSR/Russia and the US (both NASA and private companies) have had uncontrolled re-entry incidents that resulted in debris falling on land, and even populated areas.
So it's either a question of holding their space programme back to develop better controlled de-orbiting technology, or just going with what they have like everyone else did.
I guess that even if they weren't on the naughty list, the ESA and NASA wouldn't be sharing tech
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Protip: Don't use a Chinese hard hat.
Mini-satellite launching capability (Score:5, Interesting)
What's missing in the summary was that this lab module also included a cargo airlock that is designed to easily put out cargo, and that combined with its robotic arm can be used for launching mini satellites (e.g. 1 foot long).
While it may sound useless since the mini satellites need a rocket to be sent to the space station, what it really provided is a way for these satellite to basically get free ride to the space station along with regular supplies (which had to be launched anyway). So now any unused capacity in the regular supply rockets can be used for launching mini satellite, providing a potentially very low cost approach for mini satellites.
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You fail it!
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so true
Johnson! (Score:2)
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... Wang!
who the fuck still reports (Score:4, Insightful)
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USA, duh. :P
Congratulations (Score:1)