China's Space Station to Undergo Second Expansion, Changing from a "T" to a "Cross" Shape
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of the Tianhe core module of China's space station. Launched on April 29, 2021, from the Wenchang Space Launch Site, it has since deployed and implemented 267 scientific and application projects in orbit. Future plans include astronauts from Hong Kong and Macau, as well as one Pakistani astronaut as a payload expert for a short-term flight mission, with ongoing cooperation projects with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
At this pace, the space station's most important asset – "space" – will soon be insufficient.
According to relevant experts, the space station will subsequently welcome the Kunpeng space telescope. The Long March-5B rocket will also be upgraded for subsequent space station missions, developing new, larger fairings, and adding an additional stage on top of the original Long March-5B to adapt to the China Space Station project, thus entering a new "expansion" cycle.
Currently, the space station complex is a stably operating "T" shape. The future "expansion" plan will add a new expansion module to the forward docking port of the current core module, forming a "cross" shape.
According to the mission plan, this new expansion module will be larger than the Tianhe core module. It will provide multiple new docking ports and add one more airlock for astronauts, meeting the current demand for frequent cargo and crew spacecraft traffic and astronaut spacewalks.
In addition, the module will also provide a docking interface for the arrival of new experimental modules.