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<\/p>\nChina has launched the Tianzhou 4 cargo resupply mission on Monday, May 9 at 17:56 UTC (13:56 EDT) to the Tiangong space station. The Tianzhou spacecraft flew on a Chang Zheng 7 (Long March 7) rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan, China, to an approximate 389.5 x 395 km orbit with an inclination of 41.58 degrees.<\/p>\n
The Tiangong space station is currently unoccupied, with the Shenzhou 13 mission undocking after its six-month stay on April 15. A new crew of three will follow Tianzhou 4 to the station in early June, with the final two module additions to the station planned for later this year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tianzhou 4<\/p>\n
In preparation for the mission, the Tianzhou 2 craft was undocked from the forward docking port of Tiangong\u2019s single module, Tianhe, on March 27. The Tianzhou 3 cargo craft then relocated to the forward port to open the aft port for Tianzhou 4.<\/p>\n
Tianzhou itself is derived from the Tiangong 1 space station, which was the first Chinese space station. The Tianzhou crafts feature a service module with flight control, propulsion, and steering, and a 15m\u00b3 cargo module for payload. It is equipped with two solar panels for power.<\/p>\n
At 17.9 m in length, 4.2 m in maximum diameter, and an on-orbit mass of up to 13,500 kg, each Tainzhou can bring up to 6.5 tons of cargo to Tiangong. It can also transfer fuel to the space station for the occasionally needed orbit reboosts and maneuvering.<\/p>\n
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A Shenzhou crew vehicle prepares to dock with a soon-to-be-expanding Tiangong space station. (Credit: Mack Crawford for NSF)<\/p>\n
All Tianzhou launches have taken place on the Chang Zheng 7 rocket (known as the Long March 7 outside of China) from Wenchang\u2019s Launch Complex-2.<\/p>\n
Space Shuttle (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n Onboard Tianzhou 4 is all of the necessary supporting hardware, crew supplies, experiments, and propellant to enable operations of the station over the next few months as the Shenzhou 14 crew performs their upcoming mission.<\/p>\n The Shenzhou 14 three-person crew is set to launch no earlier than June 5 for a primary mission of not only science operations but also preparing the station for and installing the upcoming two science modules.<\/p>\n Those modules are Wentian and Mengtian, which are set to launch on July 24 and in October, respectively.<\/p>\n The Wentian module (\u201cQuest for the Heavens\u201d) and Mengtian (\u201cDreaming of the Heavens\u201d) will both launch on the Chang Zheng 5B rocket and will provide a platform to conduct the scientific experiments planned for the station.<\/p>\n Overall, Tianzhou 4\u2019s launch brings an end to the \u201ckey technology verification phase\u201d of the modular Tiangong space station. <\/p>\n After this, controllers and teams will enter the \u201con-orbit assembly and construction phase,\u201d which will include the installation of the science modules.<\/p>\nSee Also<\/h4>\n
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