China’s Cargo Ship ‘Tianzhou-3’ Docked Successfully
China’s unmanned cargo spacecraft ‘Tianzhou-3’ was launched successfully on September 20th
The ship was docked successfully with ‘Tianhe,’ the core module of the ‘Tianzhou-3’ space station
[해외특파원 1기 / 조수아 기자] On September 20th, China succeeded in launching its ‘Tianzhou-3’ ship from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in Hainan Province.
Tianzhou-3 is an unmanned cargo spacecraft carrying 6 tons of supplies for astronauts manning the soon-to-be-launched Shenzhou-13 spacecraft. The ship was not only launched successfully, but also docked with the Tianhe module, which is key to China’s construction of its independent space station, the Tiangong Space Station.
The launch of Tianzhou-3 is the fourth in 11 missions to construct China’s Tiangong Space Station, and differed significantly from the launch of Tianzhou-2 on the 29th of May this year. Two main differences can be observed. First, the previously launched Tianzhou-2 sourced components from Tianzhou-1, whereas the chief designer of Tianzhou-3 focused on developing new components rather than simply reusing those found on Tianzhou-2. Second, Tianzhou-3, weighing at around 5.6 tons, is 1.2 tons lighter than the 6.8 tons Tianzhou-2, largely because it took less fuel.
With the successful launches of Tianzhou-1, Tianzhou-2, and Tianzhou-3, we can expect China to achieve success once again with the launching of Tianzhou-4.
The reason why China is steadily and sequentially launching “Shenzhou” and “Tianzhou” is that its final goal is to build a “Tiangong Space Station” equivalent to Russia’s “Mir Space Station.” Therefore, the meaning of the success of docking the “Tianzhou 3” is not only that China is one step closer again to building the “Tianlong Space Station,” but also that it is chasing the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which have owned the space station so far, with terrifying technology. Now, the world seems to have to acknowledge their potential, which China’s various performances prove.
