Space station: Why China is now building its own “heavenly palace” in space

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With the construction of its own space station, China begins the largest project of its ambitious space program to date.

For this purpose, three space flights are planned for the next few weeks.

First, the core module “Tianhe” (Heavenly Harmony) is to be brought into space on board a rocket of the type Long March 5B from the Wenchang space station on the island of Hainan in southern China.

US experts expect the start next Thursday, but the date has not yet been officially confirmed.

The space station should be ready "around 2022".

If the obsolete International Space Station (ISS) goes out of service in the coming years, China would be the only nation to operate an outpost in space thereafter. "Tianhe" is 16.6 meters long with a diameter of 4.2 meters. The core module provides electricity and propulsion and offers accommodation for three astronauts who can stay on board for up to six months. Two more parts for scientific experiments are attached in a T-shape.

"The main difference to the ISS is that no one else takes part," said the former German astronaut Reinhold Ewald, now a professor at the University of Stuttgart.

Other countries are not involved in either construction or operation.

At least for the planned scientific experiments, international cooperation is planned one day, including with Germany - with the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching.

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Only this Friday four astronauts - three men and one woman - left for the ISS.

They were launched from the Cape Canaveral spaceport using a Falcon 9 launcher and are expected to work on board the ISS for six months.

At around 90 tons, China's space station, which will be called “Tiangong” (Heavenly Palace) after completion, will be significantly smaller than the 240-ton ISS.

Although the ISS has already been criticized as being too big, size also offers security in emergencies, as Ewald describes.

In 1997 he was on board the Russian station “Mir” and later played a leading role in supporting the flights of European colleagues to the ISS from the ground.

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"On the ISS it doesn't get threatening straight away, but you can cut off a part and calmly see how you can master the situation," said Ewald.

“The system is more stable due to its size.

There is more redundancy, more systems that can stand up for one another. ”There is also more space and options for complex research projects and the accommodation of additional astronauts.

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Shortly after the start of the Chinese core module, the cargo spacecraft “Tianzhou 2” with fuel and supplies could follow in May.

Three astronauts are also preparing to fly to Tianhe on board Shenzhou 12, possibly in June.

The construction phase requires a tight flight plan: a total of eleven flights are planned - three flights with modules, four cargo missions and four manned space flights, as announced by the Chinese space program.

The "International Space Station" (ISS) will cease service in the coming years

Source: NASA / dpa

With its two previous space laboratories "Tiangong 1" and "Tiangong 2", the young space nation has worked towards the complex project.

Rendezvous and refueling maneuvers as well as space walks were practiced.

The construction of the space station should actually start earlier, but problems with the necessary new launcher caused delays.

The construction phase has now been condensed in order to be finished in 2022 as originally planned.

"We will fight on multiple fronts at the same time," said Zhou Jianping, chief designer of the manned space program (CMS), according to state television.

Three rocket projects are being pursued at two space stations at the same time.

"We'll be really busy - and more importantly, we have to maintain success, quality, safety and reliability."

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It will be a big challenge, says Australian expert Morris Jones.

“A space station must be able to support human life over a long period of time.

That requires highly reliable systems. ”At the instigation of the USA, China was excluded from the joint ISS project with the Russians and Europeans.

"If you want access to a space station, you have to build one yourself," said Jones.

A station is not only about research in weightlessness, under radiation or in a vacuum, but also about findings with systems that are important for other space missions such as to the moon or Mars. "We better understand how space affects people and how to develop the technology to keep them there," said Jones. There are also political motives: "China's space program is a source of national pride, but it also helps project soft power internationally."

While Russia and the USA are discussing what to do with the "ISS", both are thinking of their own new outposts in space.

The Russian space agency Roskosmos would like to have its own station in orbit in 2030, while NASA has the moon in view.

The US station, known as the “gateway”, is to orbit the earth's satellite and provide support for a “long-term return of humans to the surface of the moon” as well as a basis for exploring deeper space.

According to NASA, the first components could not be brought into space until 2024 at the earliest.