Beijing. January 1st. INTERFAX - China plans to carry out more than 40 space launches in 2022, including as part of missions to the Tiangong National space station under construction, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said on Saturday.
"More than 40 space launches will be carried out, and it is also planned to carry out six missions for the construction of the national space station. The first flight of the new launch vehicle and a number of strategically important missions are planned within the framework of manned flights, as well as missions to deliver food to the station," CASC said in a statement.
"In 2022, CASC will continue to support a high density of missions, including in the field of flight tests, space launches and manned astronautics," the report says.
The corporation stressed that the launch vehicles of the Changzheng series, which is the main series for China, have been launched more than 400 times over the entire time, and during 2021, 48 space launches were carried out with the help of rockets of this series.
In total, China made 55 launches in 2021, which allowed it to become the first country in terms of the number of launches over the past year.
The base module "Tianhe" of the Chinese orbital station "Tiangong" was launched into orbit on April 29. From June 17 to September 16, three Taikonauts who arrived on the Shenzhou-12 ship were already working at the station. During their three-month stay, they conducted various experiments, installed and adjusted the operation of on-board equipment and twice went into outer space for installation work.
The creation of a full-fledged orbital station should be completed in 2022. Six more space launches are planned for the base module. In particular, it is supposed to dock two laboratory modules - "Wentian" and "Mentian". In addition, two cargo ships and two manned ships with taikonauts will be sent to the station in the coming time.
The total weight of the Tiangong station, which will be located at an altitude of 400 km, after completion of its construction will be about 90 tons. It will be five times smaller than the International Space Station and will be able to receive three crew members on a permanent basis (and up to six when changing crews). The service life of the Chinese space station is about 10 years.
It is planned that an autonomous module "Xuntian" with a telescope with a mirror diameter of two meters will also be put into orbit as an integral part of the station. It will maneuver in orbit using its propulsion system and from time to time dock to the station for refueling and maintenance.
Equipment, fuel and supplies for the Taikonauts working at the station are delivered by cargo spacecraft of the Tianzhou series. Earlier, two "trucks" - "Tianzhou-2" and "Tianzhou-3" have already visited the station. Having completed their task, they undocked from the station and burned up in the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere.
