The Chinese government continues to develop the space program, and quite successfully. Today, the Chinese launched the first national cargo spacecraft “Tianzhou-1” (“Heavenly Ship-1”) into space. The launch was made with the help of the Chinese carrier rocket Changzheng-7 at 14:41 Moscow time from the Wenchang cosmodrome in Hainan Province.
The truck will put about 6 tons of payload into orbit, including scientific equipment, fuel and other things. The cargo is intended for the space station “Tiangun-2”. According to the plan, the truck must dock three times in orbit with the station for testing and refueling of “TianGong-2” with fuel.
Chief designer of the space truck Bai Minheng said that the first docking with “Tiangun-2” is scheduled for April 22, the second – for June this year. According to the plan, Chinese scientists and engineers will test various control modes for both the truck and the orbital station, making docking from different directions. The third docking is planned to be carried out in an accelerated mode, writes “TASS”.
At the gas station “TianGong-2” fuel takes about a week. So far this is only one module out of three planned. The station of the Chinese will consist of three parts, including one main module and two labs. The weight of each module is about 20 tons.
“Tianzhou-1” is a medium-sized rocket, liquid oxygen and kerosene are used as fuel. In addition to conventional cargo, it can put satellites and other spacecraft into orbit.
China’s space agency previously announced plans to fly to the moon in 2018 and to Mars in 2020. [AlsotheChinesegovernmenttogetherwithscientistsandengineersisconsideringsendingprobestoJupiteranditssatellites
In mid-November, two Chinese astronauts returned to Earth after spending about a month in space in the TianGong-2 module. “For the time being, this is China’s longest mission in space.
In addition to flying into space, China is working on the implementation of a number of ground-based stages of its space program, for example, in September, the country’s scientists put into operation the world’s largest radio telescope with an antenna diameter of 500 meters, according to plan, this telescope will help in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Among other projects, now China is busy developing China’s Renmin Ribao reported earlier that China has begun developing its own reusable spacecraft, engineers and scientists are working on this project on-line so that China can not get ahead of foreign competitors.
On the Moon representatives of the Celestial Empire are going to found a settlement, and also to extract the helium-3 isotope, which can serve as an almost ideal fuel for thermonuclear reactors.
As part of the development of its space program, the Chinese plan to launch 110 missile launches in just 5 years. Among all countries this is the most dense design schedule of launches.