HAIKOU /China/, 14 November. /TASS/. The southern Chinese province of Hainan has prepared the site and equipment for the launch of the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft, which will soon go to China's orbital station, Hainan Daily reported.
According to the newspaper, the final pre-launch inspection is being carried out as planned. The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said on Wednesday that the Tianzhou-8 had been delivered to the Wenchang Space Launch Centre along with the CZ-7 (Chang Cheng 7) carrier rocket.
In late October, Deputy Director of the CMSA Lin Xiqiang told reporters that China planned to launch the Tianzhou-8 in mid-November. The cargo spacecraft will carry food, equipment and personal items for the taikonauts on the Shenzhou-19 mission. It will also carry into orbit for the first time bricks made of a ' special substance that imitates lunar soil.
The launch date has been affected by Typhoon Yagi, which recently swept through the region. Officials say it caused "some damage" to structures and equipment at the spaceport. As a result, some changes have been made to the schedule since last month.
The Chinese station is located at an altitude of about 400 km and is designed to operate for more than 10 years. It is designed for three people (up to six for short periods during crew rotations). The mass of the T-shaped complex (expansion to a cruciform shape is planned in the foreseeable future), which has three docking nodes and a spacewalking airlock, is 66 tonnes, and the volume of the compartments reaches 110 cubic metres. By 2022, the orbital facility will be in normal operation, and international projects have already begun.
Hainan's space launch center
The Wenchang Space Launch Center was built in 2009 and became operational in 2016. It is one of China's four spaceports and the only place in the country where technical conditions allow the launch of the CZ-7A (Chang Cheng 7-a), the longest (60.7 m) rocket of national design. China's other next-generation launch vehicles, which only Hainan can launch, are the commercial CZ-8 and the CZ-5 (Chang Cheng 8 and Chang Cheng 5). The latter has the largest mass (up to 879 tonnes) of any national launch vehicle.
Seven Tianzhou spacecraft, the main unit of China's Tianhe orbital station, its Wentian and Mengtian laboratory modules, the Tianwen-1 Mars probe and the Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 unmanned lunar rovers have been launched from the province's Star Port. China has also launched many satellites from the spaceport.