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Beijing, April 29 (PTI): China's ambitious space programme got a major boost on Thursday when it successfully launched the core module of its space station as part of its aim to complete the construction of the facility by the end of next year.
The Long March-5B Y2 rocket, carrying the Tianhe module, blasted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan.
Encased in the extra-large fairing of the country's state-of-the-art Long March-5B launch vehicle, Tianhe meaning Harmony in Heaven reached the designated orbit after a flight of around one hour, state-run Global Times reported.
Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated the successful launch of the core module of China's space station.
Xi, in his message, said the successful launch of the core module marks that China's space station construction has entered the full implementation stage, which lays a solid foundation for the follow-up tasks.
The Tianhe module will act as the management and control hub of the space station Tiangong, meaning Heavenly Palace, with a node that could dock with up to three spacecraft at a time for short stays, or two for long, Bai Linhou, deputy chief designer of the space station at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) said, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
A major space power, China launched its first Mars mission Tianwen-1' on July 23 this year. The Mars spacecraft which included an orbiter, lander and rover is currently hovering around the Red planet.
Tianhe has a total length of 16.6 meters, a maximum diameter of 4.2 meters and a take-off mass of 22.5 tonnes, and is the largest spacecraft developed by China.
The station will operate in low-Earth orbit at an altitude from 340 km to 450 km. It has a designed lifespan of 10 years, but experts believe it could last more than 15 years with appropriate maintenance and repairs.
"We will learn how to assemble, operate and maintain large spacecraft in orbit, and we aim to build Tiangong into a state-level space lab supporting the long stay of astronauts and large-scale scientific, technological and application experiments," said Bai.
"The station is also expected to contribute to the peaceful development and utilisation of space resources through international cooperation, as well as to enrich technologies and experience for China's future explorations into deeper space," Bai said.
The Chinese space station was expected to be a competitor to the aging International Space Station (ISS) which is a modular space station in low Earth orbit.
It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies which included NASA, (US), Roscomos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada).
Significantly China and Russia have forged close space cooperation in recent months, with plans on for a combined moon station.
As the foundation of the station, Tianhe will help China's aerospace engineers carry out the verification of key technologies, including flexible solar wings, in-orbit assembly and maintenance, and above all a new life support system.
China will also send the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft and Shenzhou-12 manned craft this year to dock with the core module. Three astronauts will be aboard Shenzhou-12 and stay in orbit for three months, Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said.
"We will transport support materials, necessary spare parts and equipment first, and then our crew," Hao said.
Tianzhou-3 cargo craft and Shenzhou-13 manned spaceship will also be launched later this year to dock with Tianhe, and another three astronauts will then begin their six-month stay in orbit.
The longest stay in space so far by Chinese astronauts is 33 days.
"In previous missions, we sent water and oxygen to space along with astronauts. But for a stay of three to six months, water and oxygen would stuff the cargo craft full with no room for other necessary goods and materials. So we installed the core module with a new life support system to recycle urine, exhaled breath condensate (EBC) and carbon dioxide," Bai said.
After the five launch missions this year, China plans six missions, including the launch of the Wentian and Mengtian lab modules, two cargo spacecraft and two manned spaceships, in 2022 to complete the construction of the space station.