It will be completed by the end of 2022 and will accommodate astronauts from developing countries in which Beijing has strategic interests

China begins assembly of first manned space station alone

photo_camera PHOTO/Xinhua - China, ousted by the United States from being among the nations that have built the International Space Station, is to assemble its own permanent orbital complex. The image captures President Xi Jinping's call to astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong, who were aboard the Tiangong-2 space laboratory in November 2016

China is on track to realise its dream of building its first permanently manned space station around Earth.

President Xi Jinping has given the go-ahead for the final phase of the project that begins construction of what will be the home that will inaugurate the continued presence in space of Chinese astronauts, also known as taikonauts. When completed in late 2022, it will become one of the main external symbols of Beijing's power.

The Long March 5B rocket, the largest of all Chinese launch vehicles and developed to carry heavy and bulky payloads, lifted off from the Wenchang space centre in the south of the country at around 5:00 a.m. Spanish peninsular time on April 29th. It carried the cylindrical Tianhe module, which at 16.6 metres long, 4.2 metres in diameter and with a liftoff mass of 22.5 tonnes, is the largest infrastructure ever built in China and positioned in orbit.

Representación artística de la primera estación espacial que Pekín va a completar en el espacio en los próximos dos años. El modulo  que se ha puesto en órbita es el que incorpora la bandera roja de China

China is embarking on building a space complex on its own because its presence was rejected by the United States to be part of the group of nations of the world that since November 1998 have given shape and life to the International Space Station (ISS). Since then, Chinese leaders have been taking firm steps to build their own manned orbital station and demonstrate to the world that they have the technology, know-how and funding to do it themselves.

Called Tiangong - meaning Heavenly Palace in English - the housing will not be the size of a football field on the ISS, but it will be their exclusive property and will be used to carry astronauts from developing countries, in which China has strategic interests, into orbit, a clever way to increase their influence on five continents. It is quite possible that Pakistan, China's historically, will be the first country to send a national aboard. Depending on the state of their diplomatic relations, Russia might also do so.

La primera mujer astronauta china es Liu Yang, una piloto de la Fuerza Aérea con más de 1.700 horas de vuelo. Junto a dos compañeros viajó al espacio en junio de 2012 y permaneció varios días realizando experimentos a bordo del laboratorio orbital Tiangong-1
To be completed in 20 months

The station will have a "T" shape, with its main axis in the module that has now been launched. Two other large cylindrical laboratories totalling around 66 tonnes will be positioned around it. However, together with the manned spacecraft and logistics resupply spacecraft that will be attached to the orbital complex, this will form an infrastructure totalling around 100 tonnes.

The station that has begun to take shape will orbit the Earth at an altitude of between 340 and 450 kilometres. To achieve this, it has two propulsion plants, which are activated automatically to raise the orbit of the infrastructure as a whole and compensate for its gradual fall due to the Earth's slight attraction. Designed to remain operational for a decade, it is quite possible that it could reach a 15-year lifespan, provided that the Chinese technicians verify that the conditions for the survival of its tenants are maintained. 

It will have the capacity to permanently house up to three astronauts, who will normally be relieved in six-month rotations. It will also be able to accommodate three other people on short-term visits. The main task of all astronauts will be to carry out scientific and technological projects in the fields of survival, biology, fluid physics, combustion and materials science under microgravity conditions. The international experiments have been coordinated by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).

Trayectoria de ascenso del cohete Larga Marcha 5B (CZ-5B) que ha colocado en órbita el núcleo central de la primera estación espacial china. Está señalada la base de lanzamiento (Wenchang Space Center), la posición del barco cuyas antenas efectúan el seguimiento del cohete (Yuan Wang 5), el lugar de caída de las etapas propulsoras desechables y el punto de separación del módulo espacial

To have Tiangong completed by the end of 2022, the plans of the chief designer of China's manned space programme, Professor Zhou Jianping, are to launch a total of 11 missions in the next 20 months. "We have to make sure every launch is reliable and operation of spacecraft in orbit is safe and sound. Every mission is a test for our organization, management, technology and support ability," he said.

The first mission to head to the orbital complex will be the 13.5-tonne Tianzhou 2 resupply spacecraft, which will take off on May 20 to carry oxygen, fuel, spare parts and supplies for the first crew of two or three astronauts, scheduled to arrive on June 10 on the Shenzhou 12 spacecraft.

La capacidad máxima de la estación orbital china es de seis astronautas mientras que la Estación Espacial Internacional puede alojar hasta once personas. Sujetos por los pies para evitar flotar, los de camisa azul son la tripulación permanente, que se releva cada seis meses, y los de camisa oscura son la dotación de la capsula Dragón 2, el nuevo transporte para astronautas de la NASA
Two inhabited complexes around the Earth

The task of the first team to access the interior of Tiangong will be to verify its health and operation and remain on board until September, in order to break the Chinese record for the longest time spent in space, which stands at 33 days. The docking of the two laboratory modules that will complete the orbital project is not scheduled until mid-2022.

The Chinese space project will coexist around Earth with the International Space Station, whose habitable volume is a thousand cubic metres, the equivalent of two spacious three-room houses and about ten times larger than Tiangong when completed. Weighing 420 tonnes and comprising more than a dozen modules, construction of the ISS began in November 1998 with major material and financial contributions from the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan.

Con sus 420 toneladas y del tamaño de un campo de fútbol, la Estación Espacial Internacional es mucho más grande y tiene mayor volumen habitable que el complejo orbital de Pekín

At an altitude between 335 and 460 kilometres above the Earth, it began to be occupied in November 2000 and has never been empty since. Its regular crew consists of seven astronauts, currently four Americans, two Russians and one Japanese. In the last six days, 11 people have been living together - the maximum allowed - due to the arrival of the crew of the manned capsule Dragon 2, carrying two more NASA astronauts, a Japanese and a Frenchman.   

China already has experience in positioning infrastructure in space and working on board it. It has done so on two occasions. On 29 September 2011 it placed the 8.6-tonne Tiangong 1 laboratory, a single 15-cubic-metre pressurised habitable module, at an altitude of 370 kilometres. It was visited by the Shenzhou 9 and 10 capsules, each carrying three astronauts, who conducted experiments on board for a few days in mid-2012 and 2013, respectively.

Maqueta a tamaño real del módulo principal de la estación china, expuesta en noviembre de 2018 en la Exhibición Internacional de la Aeronáutica y el  Espacio de Zhuai, China.

Thereafter, it became empty and the Beijing Monitoring Centre lost control of it. It eventually re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and its wreckage fell on 2 April 2018 in the waters of the South Pacific. On 15 September 2016, Tiangong 2 had been positioned in orbit, similar to the previous one, where only a manned capsule with two astronauts docked, worked inside it for almost a month and then abandoned it. It was deorbited in a controlled manner in July 2019. It is worth remembering that China became the third nation to put humans into space with its own spacecraft in October 2003 and is now the world's second-largest space power.

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