After the Tianzhou-2 cargo ship undocked from the base module of the station, the manipulator arm moved it to the side, and then returned the ship to its former place
BEIJING, January 6. /tass/. China on Thursday conducted a successful test of moving a cargo spacecraft using a manipulator arm installed on the national space station. This is stated in the statement of the Manned Space Flight Program of the PRC in the social network WeChat.
"January 6 at 06:59 Beijing time (01:59 Moscow time) after about 47 minutes of intersystem interaction, the test of moving the cargo spacecraft [Tianzhou-2] with the help of a robotic manipulator arm achieved complete success," the statement said. The document emphasizes that China has tested for the first time a manipulator arm installed on the space station to carry a large-sized spacecraft.
According to the statement, the tests began at 06:12 Beijing time (01:12 Moscow time). After the cargo ship "Tianzhou-2" undocked from the base module of the station, the manipulator arm moved it to the side, and then performed the reverse operation and returned the ship to its former place. After that, Tianzhou-2 and the base module of the Tianhe station docked again.
Currently, the station has a crew of three people: the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft with Taikonauts on board was launched on October 16. They will have to spend six months in space, during which they will be busy working on the construction of a space station. On November 7, this crew went into outer space for the first time.
The Chinese station is located at an altitude of about 400 km . It is planned that it will operate for at least 10 years. The station is designed for three people (up to six when the crew changes or visiting missions arrive).
The mass of the T-shaped complex, which has three docking nodes and a gateway for entering space, is 66 tons, the volume of compartments reaches 110 cubic meters. It is expected that the orbital object will fully begin functioning in 2022. In China, it is reported that the station will be available for international projects.
