China has launched a cargo mission to its recent articulate articulate, excellent days after astronauts departed the orbiting outpost.
A Long March 7 rocket topped with the robotic Tianzhou 3 freighter lifted off from Wenchang Satellite tv for laptop Originate Heart in southern China’s Hainan Province at the unusual time (Sept. 20). Liftoff came about at 3: 10 p.m. native time (3: 10 a.m. EDT; 0710 GMT).
Tianzhou 3 is headed for Tianhe (“Harmony of the Heavens”), the core module of China’s recent Tiangong articulate articulate. Three astronauts lately departed the 54-foot-long (16.6 meters) Tianhe after a three-month cease, landing safely in Internal Mongolia early Friday (Sept. 17) to wrap up their Shenzhou 12 mission.
Connected: The most up-to-date news about China’s articulate program
The 35-foot-long (10.6 m) Tianzhou 3 is loaded with hundreds of pounds of offers, scientific tools and propellant that can lend a hand fetch Tianhe provocative for its next astronaut crew, that can come soon. The three-astronaut Shenzhou 13 mission is anticipated to initiating in direction of the core module in mid-October. (Company purpose dates are exhausting to come again by, because China tends not to dispute many distinguished aspects of its spaceflight plans prematurely.)
Tianhe is the center of a three-direct articulate articulate known as Tiangong (“Lovely Palace”), which China targets to form constructing in 2022. This would possibly perhaps perhaps exhaust a total of 11 launches to completely assemble and equip Tiangong, that will be about 20% as massive as the International Whisper Space (ISS), Chinese articulate officials bear said. (China will not be a partner on the ISS, which has been hosting rotating astronaut crews continuously since November 2000.)
Tianzhou 3 will be the fourth of these 11 launches. Tianhe used to be the significant, lifting off on April 28. Tianzhou 2 launched to Tianhe a month later and stays connected to the core module. Shenzhou 12 took flight on June 16.
Whereas you had been wondering, the first Tianzhou vehicle launched to the prototype Tiangong-2 articulate lab in April 2017. The cargo craft performed a chain of refueling and rendezvous maneuvers sooner than being deorbited in September of that year. Tiangong-2 used to be instructed to a fiery loss of life over the Pacific Ocean in July 2019.
Tianzhou interprets as “Lovely Vessel.” Shenzhou continues the cosmic naming theme, translating as “Divine Vessel.”
Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There” (Enormous Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book referring to the leer for alien existence. Discover him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Discover us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Fb.
Be half of our Whisper Forums to support talking articulate on the latest missions, evening sky and extra! And if that you just can bear a news tip, correction or commentary, remark us at: [email protected].
SPACE.COM SENIOR SPACE WRITER — Michael has been writing for Whisper.com since 2010. His book referring to the leer for alien existence, “Out There,” used to be printed on Nov. 13, 2018. Sooner than turning right into a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and natural world biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the College of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor’s diploma from the College of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the College of California, Santa Cruz. To search out out what his most up-to-date project is, you would possibly maybe perhaps well observe Michael on Twitter.
