China s Long March-4B carrier rocket delivered another successful orbital launch mission on Tuesday, sending a new remote sensing satellite codenamed Gaofen-11 04 into its preset orbit from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in North China s Shanxi Province.
The Mengtian is expected to carry out a transposition maneuver on Thursday, after which the China Space Station will complete the formation of the T-shape structure.
China s manned space program has witnessed another milestone, as the Shenzhou-14 taikonauts entered the Mengtian lab module – the third and last part of the three-module China Space Station – on Thursday afternoon, after the new module carried out a transposition to the side docking port, completing in-orbit assembly of the station’s T-shape basic structure.
As seen on live coverage aired by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) on Thursday, Shenzhou-14 mission commander Chen Dong first entered the Mengtian lab module, followed by his fellow crewmembers Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe.
China successfully launched Mengtian lab module - the third and final part of its three-module home-developed space station - into preset orbit, on Monday afternoon from South China s tropical island province of Hainan, kicking start the final battle of completing the country s T-shape and first-ever permanent space station.
The Shenzhou-14 crew of three taikonauts, who watched live the epic launch of the Wentian [Quest to The Heavens] lab module from some 400 kilometers above the Earth and cheered it on with applause on Sunday, did not wait long to check into their office and home unit in space, as they opened the gate of the freshly docked new module and entered the Wentian at 10:03 am on Monday, the Global Times learned from the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).