China will release a spacecraft on Sunday sporting 3 astronauts to the middle module of the incomplete Chinese area station, wherein they’ll paintings and stay for 6 months as production enters superior stages.
A Long March-2F rocket sporting the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft is ready to blast off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre withinside the northwestern province of Gansu at 10:forty four a.m. neighborhood time (0244 GMT) on Sunday, a China Manned Space Agency respectable advised a information convention on Saturday.
Mission commander Chen Dong could be followed with the aid of using Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe aboard Shenzhou, meaning “Divine Vessel” in Chinese.
“All arrangements for the release are essentially ready,” stated Lin Xiqiang, an enterprise respectable.
Shenzhou-14 could be the 0.33 of 4 crewed missions – and the 7th of a complete of eleven missions – wanted to finish the gap station with the aid of using the cease of the year.
China started building its 3-module area station in April 2021 with the release of Tianhe – the primary and largest of the station’s 3 modules.
Tianhe, barely large than a metro bus, will shape the residing quarters of traveling astronauts as soon as the T-fashioned area station is completed.
Following Shenzhou-14, the closing modules – the laboratory cabins Wentian and Mengtian – could be released in July and October, respectively.
Wentian will characteristic a robot arm, an airlock cabin for journeys outdoor of the station, and residing quarters for an extra 3 astronauts at some stage in group rotations.
The Shenzhou-14 group will assist with the setup of Wentian and Mengtian and behavior capability exams on each modules.
The area station could have a designed lifespan of a decade. At a hundred and eighty tonnes, it will likely be barely heavier than Russia’s decommissioned Mir, and approximately 20% of the International Space Station with the aid of using mass.