Were you aware that, in addition to the International Space Station (ISS), there is a Chinese space station orbiting Earth? If not, it’s probably a combination of Chinese opaqueness and the lack of coverage of anything beyond our borders by American media. Let’s take a look at what the Chinese are doing in space.
China is the third country (after the Soviet Union/Russia and the United States) to launch humans into space from their own territory on their own rockets. On October 15, 2003, Yang Liwei completed 14 orbits of Earth and landed safely back in inner Mongolia. Since that first flight, China has progressed to step-by-step achievements that will be familiar to anyone who followed the 1960s space race: multi-crewed spacecraft, extra-vehicular activities (EVA), rendezvous and docking, and two prototypes of their current Tiangong space station.
Although much smaller than the ISS, Tiangong as a purely Chinese venture is quite adequate for the purposes of gaining experience in long-term zero gravity space environments. (They were refused participation in the ISS by NASA in 2011.) They have expressed their openness to commercial ventures, to admitting non-Chinese astronauts, and even to allowing space tourists. And, like the United States, but without the resetting of goals every time there is a new administration in Washington, the eventual goal is putting humans on the moon and then Mars.
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To the left and right of the main structure you see two cargo spacecraft. Below and to the left of center is a crewed Shenzhou. If the latter looks familiar, it is because the Chinese followed the body plan of the Russian Soyuz. That’s not a bad idea at all. The Soyuz is perhaps the most flown and most reliable of all crewed spacecraft in history.
Currently occupied by three persons, when fully built out the station will be able to accommodate six. Reportedly there is a larger spacecraft coming that can carry up to six crew members (the Shenzhou can carry a maximum of three). This craft will be capable of flights to the moon.
Eventually the station will be de-orbited to mostly burn up in the atmosphere. The debris that does not burn up will be targeted to uninhabited stretches of open ocean. Given NASA’s troubled Artemis moon return program—the Space Launch System rocket has just been rolled back off its launch pad in Florida to address mechanical problems—it will be interesting to see which country puts new footprints on the moon. We are approaching the 50-year anniversary of Apollo 17, when Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt were the last humans to tread on another world.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/Apollo_17_Cernan_on_moon.jpg/1280px-Apollo_17_Cernan_on_moon.jpg
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