BEIJING: The Chinese space agency has announced 18 more names for the crew of its space station “Tiangong 3”, including 17 men and a woman. Earlier, 21 people had been selected for the same space station. Thus, the number of people sent to the Chinese space station has risen to 39.
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Seven of them will become space pilots, seven will be trained as flight engineers and the remaining four will work as “mission payload specialists”. Training of new staff will also begin soon and will continue for about a year.
It should be noted that China started work on the space station “Tiangog 3” (Heavenly Palace) space station in 2016. Earlier, two experimental modules (Tiangong 1 and Tiangong 2) were sent into space.
Tiangong 3 is about the size of the former Russian space station Mir, but is being built in a modular style. This means that all parts of it will be made on the ground, which will then be joined in space.
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The Chinese news agency says the first flight carrying Tiangong 3’s equipment will depart sometime in 2021 and construction will begin, which will be completed in 2022.
Once completed, the space station is estimated to weigh 80 tons to 100 tons and possibly be lowered into orbit around the earth by four to five “Long March 5B” rocket flights. Will be delivered That is, it will orbit the earth at an altitude of 340 to 450 km.
Once completed in 2022, the space station will be operational for the next 15 years.