What does Chinas new heavenly palace in space mean for the ISS?
In mid-June, China launched a manned spacecraft that successfully docked at the already launched 54-foot-long (17-meter-long) central module of its new Tiangong space station, and delivered the first trio of astronauts who will spend the next three months there, working to keep the station running. It was the third in a series of 11 space missions that China will launch in 2021 and 2022 to complete construction of the station, which will also include two laboratory modules. China began assembling the T-shaped space station whose name means heavenly palace in April 2021. It will operate in low earth orbit at an altitude of about 211-280 miles (340-450 kilometers) above of the Earths surface, and is expected to have an operational lifespan of around 10 to 15 years, depending on Chinese Xinhua News Agency. The space station has several goals, including helping the Chinese learn how to assemble, operate and maintain large spacecraft in orbit, and develop technology to aid future Chinese missions that will go deeper into space, such as designer Bai Linhou Deputy Chief of Tiangong Explain at Xinhua. In addition, China aims to develop Tiangong into a state-level space laboratory where astronauts can make long stays and conduct scientific research. Bai considered that the station would contribute to the peaceful development and use of space resources through international cooperation. Many in the United States, however, see Tiangong as a disturbing development. April 2021 threat assessment by US intelligence agencies describes the station as another step in the Chinese governments efforts to match or exceed US capabilities in space in order to obtain the military, economic and prestige advantages that Washington has accumulated through leadership spatial . Washington Post columnist James Hohman described the station as part of a the new space race which endangers the national security of the United States. Some note that China is building the new orbital outpost at a time when the International Space Station, which was welcome astronauts from the United States, Russia and other countries for more than two decades, is starting to show his age. (China cant send its astronauts to the ISS, thanks to a 2011 US law that banned US cooperation with the Chinese space program due to fears of technology theft or national security risks.) But while Tiangong could boost Chinas prestige as a space nation, space experts dont see it as an ISS-wide achievement. They note that Tiangong will be one-fifth the size of the ISS, which is as big as a football field, and that the Chinese newcomer is actually emulating an older, simpler design. The Chinese station is more comparable to the old one Soviet Mir station than the much larger International Space Station , explains Scott Pace, director of the Institute for Space Policy to the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, in an email. The Chinese station does not represent a significant technical advance over the ISS.  Its not the ISS, said Jonathan McDowell, in an email interview. He is an astrophysicist at Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and creator of Jonathans Space Report, which emphasizes that he speaks independently and not for the center. Its a pretty straightforward copy of the 1980s Mir station that the Soviets launched, although its improved. Look at the designs of the two. Its really hard for the layman to tell them apart.  China is catching up  In some ways, Tiangong is sort of last on the list of things China needs to do to catch up with the United States and Russia, having chosen to wait until the 1990s to make a strategic investment in space exploration. and not launch a manned space flight. until 2003. They had their first astronaut, their first moon probe and their first spacewalk, McDowell says. Theyre ticking them off gradually. Things they havent done yet include long stays in space stations and astronauts on the moon. They might be 10 years into the future on that one.  Chinas space strategy is to achieve targets comparable to those of the United States, even if they dont quite match the level of technological sophistication, according to McDowell. Even reaching rough parity has not been easy. In order to send the Tiangong modules into space, China needed to develop a new generation of heavy rocket, the Long March 5. After a prototype suffered critical failure during a launch in 2017, the launch of the Tiangongs central module, originally scheduled for 2018, has been postponed until this year, according to the recent report. Analysis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. They took years to get up and running, McDowell says. But while experts suggest that the Tiangongs main goal is to establish China as a space power, the space station has the potential to make scientific and technological breakthroughs. If the Chinese put their project space telescope, scheduled to launch in 2024, at the same orbital tilt as the Tiangong, which would allow Chinese astronauts to travel to the satellite in some sort of ferry spacecraft and easily perform repairs and upgrades. Although the fundamental goals of the Chinese station are geopolitical in nature, the stations association with a Hubble-plus space telescope promises a host of new scientific discoveries, notes Dale skran, chief operating officer of the National Space Society, a non-governmental organization that advocates for the United States space exploration efforts, in an email. In addition, the capacity of the Chinese station robot arm Walking to any part of the station is an interesting development. The Chinese space station, as well as other Chinese successes such as the Zhurong Mars rover, can also help boost the US space program. In May, the new head of NASA in the Biden administration, Bill Nelson, highlighted recent Chinese achievements in his efforts to get Congress to fund NASA because it Space flights now article described. The Chinese station could have an impact on the future of the ISS. The Chinese station in orbit makes a US withdrawal from the ISS politically untenable, Skran explains. There will be stronger support to extend the life of the ISS, and, NSS (National Space Society) hopes for a better understanding of the need to enable a seamless transition to future commercial low earth orbit (LEO) stations. Current agreements between partner stations of the ISS called for the station to last until 2024, but negotiations are underway to extend the mission, and NASA administrator Nelson has said he hopes to maintain the ISS in service until 2030. But as Pace notes, the aging station wont last forever. The lifespan of the ISS will most likely be due to the aging of certain irreplaceable elements, such as Russian modules Zarya and Star, which were originally designed for the Soviet Mir-2 space station, Pace explains. Instead of building another ISS, NASA is studying the possibility of replacing it with stations owned by commercial space companies in low Earth orbit, according to Espace.com.