Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

A February look at China’s Shenzhou-11 piloted spacecraft in testing.
Credit: CCTV/framegrab via GBTimes.

China’s next piloted space mission is progressing forward. Space engineers are final checking the Tiangong-2, the country’s space lab that reportedly will be rocketed into orbit this September.

Meanwhile, the still unnamed two-person crew for the Shenzhou-11 mission is in training for their October liftoff.

The booster for their fight, the Long March 2F launch vehicle, has passed assessment testing to support the Shenzhou-11 flight.

As a target space lab, Tiangong-2 and the Shenzhou-11 crew will latch up for an expected 30-day stay in Earth orbit.

Capacity expanded

“We plan to complete the medium-term stay mission in the space lab. It also involves a manned spacecraft, which will carry life necessities of the astronauts, thus capacity of Tiangong-2 were much expanded,” explains Zhu Congpeng, chief designer of spacelab systems for China’s manned space engineering project.

China’s 60-ton medium-size space station is depicted in this artwork.
Credit: CNSA

Tiangong-2 carries much more new equipment than its predecessor space lab, Tiangong-1. This next vehicle will test gear needed to build China’s larger space station, the core module of which is headed for launch in 2018.

“We also installed a mechanical arm that will carry out automatic repair outside of the space lab,” Zhu said.

Propellant resupply

A total of 14 experiments will be carried out in Tiangong-2, and most of relevant technologies will be used on application satellites, said Zhao Guangheng, chief designer of space application systems for China’s manned space engineering project.

Long March booster to hurl Shenzhou-11 recently passed final checks.
Credit: CASC

In a milestone for China’s space program, a space cargo ship — Tianzhou-1 — is slated for liftoff in the first half of next year. Once Tiangong-2 and the unpiloted cargo craft are docked on-orbit, a propellant resupply of the space lab is scheduled.

Check out this video that shows Chinese designers busy testing Tiangong-2 for its upcoming space mission.

Go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEQLzgLtDaU

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