China launched its third and last faculty of its space station on Monday , moving closer to complete its ambitious projection in low Earth orbit to rival the International Space Station ( ISS ) .
The lab module was encapsulated in a Long March 5B rocket , which reverse off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site at 3:27 a.m. ET on Monday , according to local medium reports .
The 23 - gross ton Mengtian module ( which translates to “ stargaze of the Heavens ” ) will rendezvous with its sister module Wentian and Tianhe in low Earth range to form the T - shaped social organisation of China’sthree - faculty space stationnamed Tiangong ( mean “ Heavenly Palace ” ) . The first module of the space station , Tianhe , launched to revolve in April 2021 , while Wentian followed more than a class later in July 2022 .
The rocket carrying the space station module lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center.Photo: CNSA
Mengtian will dock with the forward larboard of Tianhe , the core of the space station , and a robotlike arm will later relocate it to the port side of the Tianhe faculty , according toEveryday Astronaut . In June , Chinasent a crew of threeastronauts to the space station to manage the moorage of the two modules . The crew is have a bun in the oven to return to Earth in December , after which gunpoint the Shenzhou-15 work party will take over .
The Chinese National Space Administration ( CNSA ) will use the Mengtian lab to channel various microgravity experiments related to fluid physics , combustion science , and outer space technology , accordingto China ’s DoS - run news agency Xinhua . Unlike Tianhe , Mengtian does not include support quarter for astronauts .
The Tiangong space post is China ’s response to the ISS , even though it ’s abouta quarter of its size . China is hoping to have its space station fully construct by the end of the year , and keep a constant flow of spaceman crews aboard Tiangong to direct various experiments .
China ’s space delegacy is making headroom with its space program , with succeeding missions plan for theMoonandMars . However , CNSA has n’t been careful in where debris from its rocket land after they reenter Earth ’s air . This past August , detritus from the Long March 5Bfell across regionsin northern Borneo , and old incident have taken place in2020and2021 in which debris from the 100 - foot - long ( 30 - meter ) core stage crashed along the westerly coast of Africa and the Indian Ocean .
This time around , the core stage from the Long March 5B that loft the Mengtian mental faculty to sphere is await to makean uncontrolled reentrythrough Earth ’s standard pressure upon its homecoming . It ’s not yet well-defined where musical composition of it might land , but this type of free - downfall can be hazardous to thickly settled areas below .
More : NASA lack Plan for Ditching Space Station in an hand brake
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