China’s space programme: Tianzhou 4 readies for mission to help build space station

Name: Chinese space contractor plans for ‘arduous’ year as China-US space race intensifies
Uploaded: 2022-05-09T12:28:01.000Z
Duration: 1 min 30 s
Description: Chinese space contractor plans for ‘arduous’ year as China-US space race intensifies

The launch is the first of six planned this year and will also carry supplies for materials science, space medicine and microgravity experiments

The cargo spaceship will remain docked with Tianhe core module until around the end of the year when the Shenzhou 14 crew return to Earth

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On Saturday, May 7, 2022, the combination of the Tianzhou 4 cargo spacecraft and a Long March 7 Y5 carrier rocket are shown being transferred in south China’s Hainan Province. Photo: Xinhua

Ling Xin

Published: 8:28pm, 9 May 2022Updated: 9:38pm, 9 May 2022

China is poised to launch its Tianzhou 4 cargo spaceship for another resupply mission to the Chinese space station, which is now being put together in low Earth orbit.

Lifting off early on Tuesday morning on a Long March 7 rocket from the southern island of Hainan, Tianzhou 4 will dock with the space station’s Tianhe core module to supply enough fuel to maintain its orbital altitude. It will also deliver fresh provisions for the station’s next three-astronaut crew who are expected to arrive at Tianhe in June for a six-month stay.

Tianzhou 4 is also carrying supplies and equipment for materials science, space medicine and microgravity experiments to be conducted by the astronauts.

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Chinese space contractor plans for ‘arduous’ year as China-US space race intensifies

A standard Tianzhou spacecraft measures 10.6 metres long and 3.3 metres wide (34.8 by 10.8 feet). It has a total mass of 12,900kg (28,400 pounds) and can carry as much as 6,500kg of cargo.

A source familiar with China’s Manned Space Programme said the nearest launch window for Tianzhou 4 was around 2am Tuesday. CCTV will start its live national broadcast of the event at 1am.

The Tianzhou 4 launch would be the first of six planned launches this year to complete the space station assembly by the end of the year, said Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office.

“2022 is a decisive year for the construction of the space station,” Hao said in April, a day after the Shenzhou 13 astronauts returned to Earth from a record-breaking six-month stay aboard Tianhe.

“This year also marks the 30th anniversary for China’s Manned Space Programme. The completion of the space station and the national space laboratory is an important goal of the three-step strategy of China’s Manned Space Programme.”

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