{"id":14683,"date":"2017-04-27T23:59:28","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T15:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/tianzhou-1-freighter-achieves-chinas-first-in-space-refueling-demo\/"},"modified":"2017-04-27T23:59:28","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T15:59:28","slug":"tianzhou-1-freighter-achieves-chinas-first-in-space-refueling-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/tianzhou-1-freighter-achieves-chinas-first-in-space-refueling-demo\/","title":{"rendered":"Tianzhou 1 freighter achieves China\u2019s first in-space refueling demo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Animation of the Tiangong 2 space lab (left) and Tianzhou spacecraft (right) docked in orbit. Credit: CCTV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The robotic Tianzhou 1 refueling freighter launched last week has successfully completed the first in-orbit propellant transfer with China\u2019s Tiangong 2 space lab, a major accomplishment as the country\u2019s engineers hope to finish assembly of a large space station by 2022, officials said Thursday.<\/p>\n

The refueling demonstration validates key technologies China will need to assemble and maintain the nation\u2019s planned 60-metric ton (130,000-pound) space station. The core component of the orbital complex, named Tianhe 1, could launch as soon as next year, followed by two more research modules by 2022.<\/p>\n

Chinese officials did not reveal details about the refueling activity, such as the amount of propellant transferred and whether the demonstration included both fuel and oxidizer.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s state-run Xinhua news agency reported the the refueling test was completed at 1107 GMT (7:07 a.m. EDT; 7:07 p.m. Beijing time) Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the report from the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center, Tiangong 2 and Tianzhou 1\u2019s first in-orbit propellant refueling mission is completed successfully,\u201d said Zhang Youxia, chief commander of China\u2019s human space program. \u201cNow, please allow me to declare the Tianzhou 1 mission is completed successfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xinhua said the achievement made China the third country, after Russia and the United States, to refuel a spacecraft in orbit. The European Space Agency\u2019s ATV supply ship refueled the International Space Station, but the fuel transfer system was provided by Russia.<\/p>\n

The in-orbit refueling procedure took about five days, beginning soon after the Tianzhou 1 freighter docked with Tiangong 2 on Saturday around 240 miles (385 kilometers) above Earth.<\/p>\n

The Tianzhou 1 spacecraft, also packed with cargo bags to simulate a supply shipment to China\u2019s future space station, blasted off April 20 on top of a Long March 7 rocket from the Wenchang launch base on Hainan Island, a province in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Chinese officials said before Tianzhou 1\u2019s launch that the spacecraft would link up with the Tiangong 1 research lab three times during its mission. Xinhua reported that another refueling test is scheduled for June.<\/p>\n

Tianzhou 1 is expected to stay with Tiangong 2 for about three months, then depart for around two months of standalone flight before re-entering Earth\u2019s atmosphere to end the mission.<\/p>\n

Crews on China\u2019s space station will need fresh equipment, experiments and other supplies during long-duration missions. The longest Chinese spaceflight to date was the Shenzhou 11 crew\u2019s visit to the Tiangong 2 space lab last year, a mission that lasted approximately 32 days.<\/p>\n

Future Tianzhou spacecraft will deliver goods to the Chinese station, similar to the way U.S., Russian and Japanese supply ships ferry equipment to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, the daily supplies of the astronauts, including food and clothing, extravehicular spacesuits, as well as drinking water with special tanks,\u201d said Bai Mingsheng, chief designer of the Tianzhou 1 spacecraft at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. \u201cWe will see if the Tianzhou 1 spacecraft meets the demand of transporting and resupplying various goods through this launch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tianzhou means \u201cheavenly vessel\u201d in Chinese.<\/p>\n

The simulated cargo aboard Tianzhou 1 represents the equipment a three-person crew would need for one month in space, officials said. The payloads include crew provisions, water tanks and oxygen and nitrogen vessels designed to replenish the space lab\u2019s breathable atmosphere.<\/p>\n

With a launch mass of nearly around 28,460 pounds (12,910 kilograms), Tianzhou 1 was the heaviest spacecraft ever launched by China, slightly bigger than the Tiangong 2 space lab itself.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Animation of the Tiangong 2 space lab (left) and Tianzhou spacecraft (right) docked in orbit. Credit: CCTV The robotic Tianzhou 1 refueling freighter launched last week has successfully completed the first in-orbit propellant transfer with China\u2019s Tiangong 2 space lab, a major accomplishment as the country\u2019s engineers hope to finish assembly of a large space […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[135,372,330,2588,411,3185],"class_list":["post-14683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-china","tag-in-space-refueling","tag-tiangong","tag-tiangong-2","tag-tianzhou","tag-tianzhou-1"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}