China will launch six major missions before the end of the year to complete its Tiangong space station, which space officials say could link up with a powerful telescope and host commercial activities and international astronauts.
The details were revealed during an April 17 press conference, which was held a day after the return of the astronauts after a record-setting 182-day mission.
The six crucial missions will start in May with a resupply mission followed by the six-month-long crewed flight in June, according to the director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office.
The latest news about China's space program.
The second module, Wentian, will join the first module in July, followed by the third and final module in October.
The first crew rotation of the Tiangong station will take place in late the year when the cargo and crewed missions are launched.
During the six-month-long crewed missions, astronauts will conduct an array of experiments and outreach activities. Chinese space officials have said that the experiments will focus on life sciences, microgravity research, astronomy, Earth science and new materials and space technology.
The original plan called for the three-module Tiangong station to host crews non-stop for 10 years. Each year there would be two cargo and two crewed spaceships launched.
The Xuntian space telescope, which will be able to dock for maintenance, will be launched in late 2023.
The telescope will conduct frontier scientific research in the universe's formation and evolution, dark matter and dark energy, exoplanets and solar system objects, and is expected to secure a lot of innovative breakthrough.
Extending the space station is one of the things the CMSEO is looking at.
The extending modules and cabins of the spaceship will be used to conduct more experiments and provide better living conditions for the astronauts. The expansion plans stated that new versions of the Wentian and Mengtian experiment modules would be added.
A next-generation crew vehicle and a next-generation launch vehicle are also in the works. The Long March 2F rocket is used to launch China's astronauts.
In the future, we will explore new models of commercial human spaceflight and introduce commercial cargo.
China will certainly carry out more in-depth exchanges and cooperation with all countries in the world that are committed to the peaceful use of outer space, according to Hao.
In March, the man who made history in 2003 by becoming the first Chinese to reach space, said that untrained astronauts would be able to fly to the space station by the end of the decade.
China needs to complete Tiangong first. The next mission will be a cargo mission. The 29,760-pound (13,500 kilogram) spacecraft will lift off on a Long March 7 rocket from Wenchang and carry fuel and supplies for the Shenzhou 14 mission, which is expected to launch in June.
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