China’s Wentian space lab docks with Tiangong station core module
- Lab for science and biology experiments docked with Tianhe core module 13 hours after lift-off from southern China
- It will soon play a role in the most challenging mission in China’s manned space flight history – a transitional assembly
The Long March-5B rocket carrying Wentian had lifted off from the Wenchang spaceport in Hainan on Sunday afternoon, and spent about eight minutes in flight before entering orbit, according to state news agency Xinhua.
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A total module length of 17.9 metres (59 feet), diameter of 4.2 metres and launch weight of about 20 tonnes (23 tonnes), make Wentian “the largest and heaviest spacecraft China has ever built”, Xinhua reported Liu Gang, deputy chief designer of the China Academy of Space Technology, as saying.
It is heavier than any other single-module spacecraft currently in orbit. By comparison, Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope and the largest spy satellites are just about half that weight.
Wentian consists of a working module, an airlock module and a resource module, and carries eight experiment cabinets as well as 22 extravehicular payload adaptors over its hull.
The docking process at the front port was overseen by the three astronauts aboard Tianhe core module, marking Tiangong’s first spacecraft visit in a manned state and taking the under-construction station one step closer to completion.
The astronauts entered Wentian about seven hours after the docking, and said initial checks suggested everything was fine.
If everything goes to plan, the trio will soon conduct the most challenging mission in China’s manned space flight history: a transitional assembly.
Astronauts will catch the Wentian lab module with a robotic arm on the Tianhe core module after Wentian unlocks from the core. Through three movements of flip up, rotate, and flip down, the Wentian module will then undergo a 90-degree planar transposition.
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This operation will allow the module, originally docked at Tianhe’s forward docking port, to turn to the lateral port and dock again. This will free up the forward port for the arrival of the second science module Mengtian in October.
The manoeuvre will mark China’s first transitional assembly for spacecraft, according to the country’s space scientists. The transposition docking method was pioneered by the former Soviet space station Mir, which China learned from.
Building the massive Wentian module was not easy, according to researchers involved in the project.
The airlock module adopted a new double-ribbed wall structure design to achieve higher strength and longer lifespan, with scientists and engineers improving tooling and process parameters to manufacture the components, researchers told the state-run Science and Technology Daily.
They also carried out complicated tests to arrive at high-quality, automated space curve welding technology for the door frame of Wentian’s hatch, and designed a special 3D structure of the heating tubes buried inside the bulkhead to realise sensitive temperature control and life support systems.
