Tiangong-1 On-orbit Operation Harvests Abudant Achievements

2015-04-02

Spokesman of China Manned Space Program：Wang Zhaoyao

[September 26, 2014, CMSP News] The spokesman of CMSP said on September 26 that over the past three years Tiangong-1, the target spacecraft for rendezvous and docking, has successively completed six rendezvous and docking missions and carried out a series of experiments, technical tests and space applications，which has yielded fruitful results and accumulated significant experiences for the development and construction as well as the operation and management of Chinese manned space station.

Tiangong-1 is China’s first indigenous manned space test platform, with overall length of 10.4 meters, maximum diameter of 3.35 meters and inner effective space of about 15 cubic meters. The module can accomodate three astronauts for working and living in it, and can operate for two years in orbit according to the design.

Since Tiangong-1 was launched on September 29, 2011, it has successfully conducted six rendezvous and docking missions with Shenzhou 8, Shenzhou 9 and Shenzhou 10, either automatically or in manually controlled way. It has also completed a series of technological demonstrations, including the control and management of the docked spacecraft assembly; space station’s orbital keeping, support and maintenance by astronauts. It conducted experiments on remote sensing application, space physics and environment probing, and space materials experiment, thus having acquired valuable data and application results. Tiangong-1 has also become China’s first “space classroom”. During the mission, with the help of Nie Haisheng and Zhang Xiaoguang, astronaut Wang Yaping instructed lessons in space to more than 60 million students of primary and middle schools with favorable feedbacks.

The News Conference on Tiangong-1 On-orbit Operation Harvests

To further explore the potentials of Tiangong-1, after Shenzhou 10 spaceship’s return in July 2013, the Chinese scientists formulated the Tiangong-1 spaceflight mission plan. The plan, which is based on the characteristics of the long design life, has balanced the spacecraft’s platform status and apparatus function, and also considered the requirements for Chinese follow-up manned space technology demonstration. To facilitate the program, measures were taken to meticulously operate and maintenance, strictly supervise and manage, and many innovative technology testings and demonstrations have been successively implemented.

At present, Tiangong-1 performs well with all loading equipments in a good condition to continue its work in orbit. Relevant departments will conduct strict supervision over Tiangong-1 and keep on track of it in a scientific way in order to expend its life duration, thus laying a foundation for space application and extended testing in the future.

The spokesman maintains at the same time that ever since China has started the project of manned space station three years ago, all the development and construction work have been carried out steadily. Currently, all kinds of flight product development, ground facility construction and large combined tests have been carried out, among which are Tiangong-2 space laboratory, Tianzhou cargo vehicle, CZ-7 carrier rocket, Shenzhou 11 spaceship and CZ-2F-11 rocket. All major flight products have entered a critical development and production stage. Preparations have been made for astronauts and relevant ground facilities to perform fight missions. The core module of the space station and two experiment modules will be transferred to the development test stage for the flight product. The Hainan Launching Site has almost completed its construction and is ready to provide service now.

According to the plan, the Tiangong-2 space laboratory will be launched in 2016 and docked with Shenzhou manned spacecraft and Tianzhou cargo vehicle respectively to further demonstrate the space station construction technologies. (By Zhong Zaitian, Zhang Titi)