Yesterday China successful launch of the upgraded Long March 5B heavy launch vehicle. One of the main tasks for this launch vehicle for the next two years will be the launch of modules into low Earth orbit to assemble a promising space station. At a press conference held yesterday on this occasion, the project manager that the successful launch of Long March 5B allows us to count on the completion of the assembly of the station in 2022.
In total, 11 launches will be made to build a promising space station (12 with yesterday). Not all of them will be carried out using the Long March 5B launch vehicle (another name is CZ-5B or Long March-5B). In some cases, the less heavy launch vehicles Long March 2F and Long March 7 will also be used to send cargo and crews. But the main modules of the orbital station will be put into low Earth orbit by the upgraded heavy launch vehicle Long March 5B (up to 22 tons payload).
By the end of 2022, the base module, two laboratory modules and an orbiting telescope-laboratory will be launched into orbit to assemble the station (the module with the telescope will dock with the station only for the period of maintenance). Four manned missions on active Shenzhou ships and four Tianzhou trucks will be sent to the station under construction to carry out assembly and maintenance work.
It is interesting to note that a new-generation manned spacecraft participating yesterday in the first mission of the Long March 5B launch vehicle will not be used to assemble the orbital space station. This may mean that it is saved for more complex missions, for example, for the lunar one.
In about two years, by the time the Chinese orbital space station is put into operation, it will weigh 60 tons (up to 90 tons with docked trucks and manned spacecraft). This is significantly less than the 400-ton weight of the ISS. At the same time, the leadership of this Chinese space program states that, as necessary, the number of orbital modules in the future station can be increased to four or even six. In any case, China is building the station on its own, and not by the whole world, as is the case with the ISS.
Source: 3dnews.ru