HAIKOU, January 22. /TASS/. The Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan will test launch a prototype of a new type of shuttle designed to deliver people and cargo to China's future inhabited station, the Office of Manned Space Programs of the country announced.
An orbital shuttle capsule 8.8 m in length and weighing 21.6 tonnes is said to be "safe, reliable, multifunctional," the space department said.
According to space industry officials, a residential module of the future orbital laboratory was also delivered to the Hainan launch center from Tianjin in northern China, where the necessary components and equipment for the space project are produced. The launch of its segments will be carried out with the help of Changzheng (Long March 5) launch vehicle, the strongest in China, which will begin to prepare for the launch from the cosmodrome in the first half of February.
The main module's prototype of the station weighing 22.5 tonnes reaches 16.6 m in length and 4.2 m in circumference, and is designed for three astronauts. "This is the biggest space object that has ever been created in our country," - said the office of manned space flights.
The construction of an international space town has already begun in Wenchang: as the Chinese authorities noted earlier, they plan to cooperate with other countries when using the space station. The area of the object will exceed 12 square kilometers,, the project is supervised by a special regional department. At the same time, the authorities are working to improve the infrastructure of the settlement located near the cosmodrome, they intend to optimize such important social spheres as education, medical services, culture and sports, and bring various commercial services to the locals on the highest level possible.
The creation of the main infrastructure of the Wenchang cosmodrome was completed in 2014. The proximity of the space facility to the equator facilitates heavy rocket launches. According to the Chinese space program, it will be used to launch the modules of the Chinese space station and in Moon exploration. In July 2018, Hainan Governor Shen Xiaoming said in an interview with TASS that the local authorities were ready to set up a specialized Russian-Chinese center for those purposes in the province.