BEIJING: As the NASA-led International Space Station( ISS ) nears its retirement, China plans to increase its space station from three to six modules in the upcoming years, providing astronauts from other countries with an alternative platform for near-earth missions.
The China Academy of Space Technology( CAST ), a division of China’s primary space contractor, stated at the 74th International Astronautical Congress in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Wednesday( Oct 4 ) that the Chinese space station will be operational for more than 15 years.
That would be longer than the earlier stated ten years.
At an planetary height of up to 450 km, China’s self-built storage place, also known as Tiangong or Celestial Palace in Chinese, has been fully functional since late 2022.
Tiangong, which has expanded to six modules and is now 180 metric tonnes in weight, is still only 40 % of the ISS’s large and can accommodate a crew of seven pilots. However, after 2030, when China has stated it wants to be” a major space energy ,” the ISS, which has been in orbit for more than 20 years, is anticipated to be decommissioned.
As Tiangong reached full operation next year, Chinese state media declared that China would not be a” slump” as the ISS neared retirement and added that” many nations” had requested to send their astronauts to the Chinese station.