Tiangong-2 (Chinese: 天宫二号; pinyin: Tiāngōng èrhào; lit. 'Heavenly Palace 2') is a Chinese space laboratory and part of the Project 921-2space station program. Tiangong-2 was launched on 15 September 2016, 22:04:09 (UTC+8).[6]
Tiangong-2 is neither designed nor planned to be a permanent orbital station; rather, it is intended as a testbed for key technologies that will be used in China's large modular space station, which is planned for launch in 2023.[7]
History
The China Manned Space Engineering Office published a brief description of Tiangong-2 and its successor Tiangong-3 in 2008, indicating that at least two crewed spaceships would be launched to dock with Tiangong-2.[1]
Tiangong-2 was originally expected to be launched by the China National Space Agency by 2015[8] to replace the prototype module Tiangong-1, which was launched in September 2011.[9] In March 2011, Chinese officials stated that Tiangong-2 was scheduled to be launched by 2015,[10][8] following the deorbit of Tiangong-1. An uncrewed cargo spacecraft will dock with the station,[8] allowing for resupply.[11]
In September 2014, its launch was pushed to September 2016.[12] Plans for visits in October 2016 by the crewed mission Shenzhou 11 and the uncrewed resupply craft Tianzhou were made public.[13] The station was successfully launched from Jiuquan aboard a Long March 2F rocket on 15 September 2016.[14]
Dimensions
The dimensions of Tiangong-2 are:
Crew size: 2, with 30 days of life support resources.[10] The crew (from Shenzhou 11, October 2016) will consist of two astronauts.
Salyut programme – a Soviet space station with a similar monolithic design
References
^ abcdBranigan, Tania; Sample, Ian (26 April 2011). "China unveils rival to International Space Station". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 27 April 2011. China often chooses poetic names for its space projects, such as Chang'e – after the moon goddess – for its lunar probes; its rocket series, however, is named Long March, in tribute to communist history. The space station project is currently referred to as Tiangong, or "heavenly palace".
^ ab
David, Leonard (11 March 2011). "China Details Ambitious Space Station Goals". Space.com. Retrieved 9 March 2011. China is ready to carry out a multiphase construction program that leads to the large space station around 2020. As a prelude to building that facility, China is set to loft the Tiangong-1 module this year as a platform to help master key rendezvous and docking technologies.
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
