Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Artistic view of China Space Station Telescope.
Image credit: NAOC

China is readying a major project that not only augments their research agenda for astronomy but bolsters use of the country’s space station complex.

There are bragging rights associated with China’s star-studded venture.

Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab

The spacecraft is called Xuntian, known as the Chinese Survey Space Telescope, but also the Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST). The name “Xuntian” can be literally translated as “surveying the sky” or “survey to heavens.”

NASA’s venerable and productive Hubble Space Telescope.
Image credit: NASA

Scheduled for launch next year, the bus-sized CSST houses a two-meter (6.6 foot) diameter primary mirror. This ultraviolet-optical space telescope is to co-orbit with the country’s Tiangong orbital outpost. It has a nominal mission lifetime of 10 years, but the observatory’s space duties could be extended.

For more information on this upcoming Chinese endeavor, go to my new Space.com story – “Chinese astronomers say their new space telescope will outdo Hubble” – at:

https://www.space.com/china-space-telescope-xuntian