Crewed Flights

The Chinese space station seen from orbit

Published on 30 November 2023

At the end of November, the Chinese space agency responsible for crewed spaceflights (CMSA) published photos of its Tiangong station made up of several modules. The photos were taken by the Shenzhou -16 crew at the end of October as it returned to Earth.

After operating two small stations consisting of a single module (Tiangong-1 and 2), on April 29, 2021 China launched Tianhe, the first 22-tonne element of the China Space Station (CSS) or Tiangong (without a number, this word means Heavenly Palace in Mandarin). The orbital complex today comprises of three modules.

SHOTS TAKEN AT THE END OF OCTOBER

This is not the first time that we can see images from the Chinese station. It has been hosting crews of three people since the Shenzhou-12 mission (June to September 2021) and as such photos of its arrangements as well as video broadcasts (including during spacewalks) already allowed us to get a good idea of its appearance inside and out.
On the other hand, on November 28, 2023, the CMSA (China Manned Space Agency, the agency responsible for crewed flights in China) published, for the first time on its website, photos taken from orbit of the entire station with its three modules. The text accompanying these photos specifies that they were taken a month earlier by the crew of Shenzhou-16, namely Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao. Their ship Shenzhou was moving away from the station to return to Earth (October 30). On board Tiangong, the next crew had already been there since October 26 (Shenzhou-17 with Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin ).

The Chinese space station taken from a Shenzhou spacecraft (Shenzhou-16 mission) at the end of October 2023. The text which accompanies this photo specifies that “for the first time in orbit a large-scale image of the assembly of the space station was taken with the Earth in the background.”
© CMSA

We added the identification of the main elements to this photograph of the Chinese station. In addition to the modules, a docked Tianzhou automatic cargo ship and a Shenzhou ship can be seen.
© Cité de l’espace after CMSA

TIANHE, WENTIAN AND MENGTIAN

The photographs thus published show very clearly the three main elements of the station: the central body Tianhe (Heavenly Harmony in Mandarin ) to which have been added Wentian science modules (Quest for Heaven) and Mengtian (Dreaming of the Heavens), giving the structure a T shape.
Wentian was launched on July 24, 2022 and Mengtian on October 31, 2022. Like Tianhe, these modules were placed in orbit by the Chinese heavy launcher CZ-5 which takes off from the Wenchang space centre located on the island of Hainan.
Also seen in the photographs are the massive solar panels as well as a Tianzhou automatic cargo ship (No. 6 ) and the Shenzhou-17 vessel.
The Chinese space station has a total mass of just under 70 tonnes compared to the 400 tonnes of the International Space Station (ISS) launched 25 years ago. However, the latter includes several countries. In addition, the Chinese station could well expand in the years to come by receiving other modules.

STATION PORTRAITS

This is obviously not the first time that space stations have been photographed from orbit. It is actually very common, astronauts can take interesting shots when their spacecraft is approaching or leaving. The images thus collected are obviously used for communication with the general public. But their usefulness goes well beyond that. On the ground, the personnel in charge of these orbital complexes analyse these photographs in order to assess the structural integrity of the various modules and how they are withstanding an extremely hostile environment (impacts of micrometeorites or debris, temperatures ranging from 120 to +150 ° C, etc.).

Four examples of station photos taken from orbit: Skylab (United States), Mir (Russia), ISS (United States , Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada) and Tiangong-2 (China). This last image was taken by a small satellite released from this single-module station which foreshadowed the current Chinese station.
© Cité de l’espace after NASA / CMSA.