China Welcomes All Countries To Its New “Heavenly Space Station” As ISS Close To Retirement

On Tuesday, at the biennial Airshow China in Zhuhai, the nation revealed an exact copy of its first permanently crewed space station. The module is 17 meters tall that would be not only a replacement to the international community’s orbiting laboratory but also a symbol of China’s space dream.

The Heavenly Palace at Airshow China

Many people gathered around the cylinder-shaped space station module which represents the life and work of the Tiangong, also known as “Heavenly Palace”. There will be two other copies with solar panels for scientific experiments purpose.

The orbiting lab which is 60 tons heavy will have three permanent astronauts to carry out microgravity and biological studies. The team is expected to be ready around 2022 and the station will be in operation for about 10 years.

When the International Space Station retires in 2014, China will have the only space station orbiting. Though, the ISS, which is a collaboration between Russia, US, Europe, Japan, and Canada, weighing 400 tons with the size of a football pitch, is surely much larger than China’s station.

All countries are welcomed

In May, China announced that all countries can use its billion-worth lab for science experiments.

Chen Lan, an analyst at GoTaikonauts.com which is a website specialized in the Chinese space program, stated that the lab will serve exactly like the current ISS, for technology, research, and deep-space exploration.

Many entities such as universities, private and public companies as well as institutes from 27 countries have proposed 40 plans.

Astronauts from the European Space Agency have come to China for training to work on China’s space station.

European astronauts receive training in China

According to space analyst Bill Ostrove said that building a space station is too expensive for many nations, companies, and universities. So he believed China will successfully develop partnerships.

US President Donald Trump considers China a threat, launching plans on a new “Space Force” in order to dominate over rivals in space.

Space market is more diverse

However, the Chinese space program has got some problems.

In April, Tiangong 1, which served as a testing ground for the permanent station, disintegrated on its way back to Earth. The lab was launched in September 2011 and stopped functioning two years ago. China authorities denied the fact that it was out of control.

In 2016, Tiangong 2 – the second lab – was placed in orbit.

The Tiangong 1

Ostrove claimed that despite opposite arguments, the US still rules the space and Russia, Japan, the European Space Agency and Japan will remain their major roles. But China is likely to stand among the key space powers in the future. Private firms are becoming more important in this sector, too.

He added that as the space market is getting more diverse, it will be hard for one or two countries to dominate space like the Soviet Union and the US did in the Cold War.