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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ggersh who wrote (172507)	5/29/2021 6:25:59 PM
From: TobagoJack	3 Recommendations Recommended By Cogito Ergo Sum ggersh maceng2 Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217588

USA is ahead in space exploration, and China is plodding upward and outward. Even as there is as yet no explicit race, the race is on, and as long ago reckoned, to the planets and the stars, for all the marbles Message 29722247 The MSM spin about out-of-control rocket debris is unseemly in a petty way, but never mind The Capitol Hill attitude of no-cooperation is petty in an unseemly way, but no one has time to care. All just makes the race that much more interesting, and much more expensive than WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, … and if resources wasted, more consequential. Common sense would dictate cooperation best, but the GOP / DNC cannot get along with the CCP, and ideology has little to do with the fuss, because China doesn’t care about ideology. Go figure. In any case, the Russians playing well and no bad actor-role China and Russia space programmes to share space flight components, says Russian agency scmp.com Second of 10 launches just done, and whatever assembled might soon be the sole space station in operation once ISS retired by the like-minded. space.com China launches new cargo ship to Tianhe space station module By Mike Wall about 7 hours ago China's new space station module is about to get its first robotic visitor. The Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft launched from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on China's Hainan Island today (May 29), rising off the pad atop a Long March 7 rocket at 8:55 a.m. EDT (1255 GMT; 8:55 p.m. local time). It deployed its solar arrays as expected and is in good health, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMS). The uncrewed Tianzhou-2 is carrying 4.69 tons of pressurized cargo and 1.95 tons of propellant, CMS officials have said. If all goes according to plan, the freighter will haul these goods to Tianhe, the 22.5-ton core module of China's planned space station, which launched to low Earth orbit on April 28. Related: The latest news about China's space program A Chinese Long March 7 rocket launches the Tianzhou-2 cargo ship to the country's Tianhe module, the core of the new Tiangong space station, from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island on May 29, 2021. (Image credit: China Manned Space Engineering Office)The delivery will help prepare Tianhe for the arrival of astronauts. And the module's first crew is coming soon: The three-person Shenzhou-12 mission is scheduled to launch toward Tianhe next month. Tianhe ("Harmony of the Heavens") is the central piece of China's first space station, a three-module, 66-ton structure that the nation aims to have fully assembled by the end of 2022. It will take a total of 11 launches to build and supply the orbital outpost, the first two of which are now in the books. China's Tianzhou-2 cargo ship is seen before launch during preparations for its mission to the Tianhe space station core module. (Image credit: CASC)The space station project has been in the works for about 30 years, and China gained a lot of orbital-assembly experience over the past decade. In September 2011, for example, the nation launched a prototype space lab called Tiangong-1, which hosted three-astronaut crews in 2012 and 2013. Both of those crewed missions spent about two weeks aboard the space lab. China launched Tiangong-2 in September 2016 and sent three astronauts to the lab for a three-month stay that October. In April 2017, the Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft met up with Tiangong-2, performing a series of docking and refueling exercises over the next five months. Neither of those prototype space labs remains aloft. Tiangong-1 fell to Earth in an uncontrolled fashion in April 2018, burning up over the southern Pacific Ocean. Mission controllers steered Tiangong-2 down for a much more orderly demise in July 2019, also over the South Pacific. Click here for more Space.com videos... Blastoff! China's new space station's core module launches Like Tiangong-1, the core stage of the Long March 5B rocket that launched the Tianhe module crashed back to Earth out of control. Its pieces splashed down in the Indian Ocean on May 8 after 10 controversial days in orbit, during which some experts and exploration advocates, including new NASA chief Bill Nelson, accused China of behaving carelessly when it comes to space junk. There will be no such issues following the Tianzhou-2 launch; the Long March 7's first stage does not reach orbit, coming down instead in a preselected disposal zone in the ocean. Today's launch was originally scheduled for May 19, but it was pushed back by apparent technical issues. Mike Wall is the author of " Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com. Sent from my iPad