The experimental module "Mengtian" successfully docked with the side port of the main module "Tianhe"BEIJING, November 3.
/tass/. China's space station on Thursday assumed its final T-shape after assembly work. This was reported by the Office of the Manned Space Flight Program of China.
At 09:32 Beijing time (04:32 Moscow time), the Mengtian experimental module successfully completed its movement and docked with the side port of the main Tianhe module.
"The relocation of the Mengtian experimental module marks the completion of the assembly of the basic configuration of the T-shaped Chinese space station in orbit, this is a key step towards its construction," the agency said on the WeChat social network. In the future, the station will undergo functional tests.
It is expected that Chinese cosmonauts (members of the Shenzhou-14 crew) will enter the Mengtian module today.
At the moment, the station consists of the Tianhe base module, the Wentian and Mengtian laboratory modules, as well as the Tianzhou-4 cargo ship and the Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft.
The Chinese station is located at an altitude of about 400 km and will serve for more than 10 years. It is designed for three people (up to six for a short time when the crew changes). 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 work normally by the end of 2022 and, as promised by the Chinese authorities, will be available for international projects.
