China moves towards space, launches first module for new space station

China on Thursday launched the first module for its new space station. This is the first step in fulfilling China’s objective to make a permanent human presence in space. Tianhe core module which has all the tools to support life and has enough space for astronauts to live. It was launched via a 5B rocket from Wenchang in China’s Hainan province.

This space station will begin its operations in 2022. Actually, parts have to be sent to assemble the station through the first 10 missions so that it can be well installed in Orbit. It is expected that this Chinese space station will remain in space for 15 years and its distance from Earth will be 400-450 km. However, there are currently no plans for international cooperation with this space station from China.

Let us tell that till now only Russia and America have succeeded in building their station in space. Currently only the International Space Station of the US space agency NASA is active. China has named its space station as Tiangong. In Chinese it means ‘palace of paradise’. This multimodal space station is mainly divided into three parts. It will have a space capsule and two labs. The total weight of all these will be around 90 MT. The space station’s core capsule is named Tianhe, which means the harmony of heaven.

China’s first satellite was sent in the year 1970. In addition, China sent its first “taikonaut” to space in 2003 and sent its probe to Mars earlier this year. China sent Tiangong-1 lab in September of 2011 through which it wanted to launch the goal of a permanent station in space.