A powerful rocket will launch into space from the Wenchang Launch Field in Hainan for the mission to expand China’s space station. However, like the previous Long March 5B rocket, it was stated that this rocket will enter the atmosphere uncontrollably on its return.
China continues to build the Tiangong space station (the Chinese version of the International Space Station). One of the station’s modules has already been placed in orbit. The Chinese space agency is preparing to launch the station’s Wentian module into space from the Wenchang Launch Field in Hainan on Sunday (July 24).
After the Wentian module is launched, it will rendezvous with the Tianhe module in low Earth orbit, where Tianhe’s robotic arm will transport Wentian to its final location. When the module arrives, it will be greeted by three Shenzhou-14 astronauts.
Long March 5B rockets have a bad reputation. After doing their job, they enter the Earth’s atmosphere uncontrollably. The earlier rocket disintegrated on reentry and its debris fell into the Indian Ocean, near the Maldives. The wreckage of another rocket launched before that fell in a residential area on the African coast and damaged buildings. Fortunately, no one was injured. A recent study puts the probability that rocket parts that will fall to Earth in the next 10 years will harm humans at 10 percent, which is a serious number.
With the launch and docking of Wentian, the Tiangong space station will be half complete. The first module, Tianhe, was launched in April 2021 and serves as the life support, living quarters, control center and connectivity hub for the remaining modules. Wentian will contain additional crew rooms, but the main purpose of the module is to serve as a scientific research base. The next two modules (Mengtian and Xuntian) are expected to be launched in October 2022 and 2023.
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