In May’s first half, the uncrewed cargo craft Tianzhou-6 will be delivered to China’s space station.
Prior to the supply ship’s arrival, the currently docked Tianzhou-5 will depart from the station, opening up the docking hatch to receive the new cargo ship.
Tianzhou-5 is scheduled to be deorbited, taking a destructive plunge into Earth’s atmosphere.
Steady progress
The Shenzhou-15 crew members have made steady progress in various scientific experiments and space station maintenance work since they entered orbit on Nov. 30, 2022.
The trio’s six-month journey is scheduled to conclude around the end of May. At that time the Shenzhou-16 crew will take over station operations, supported by ground teams.
Monday marks completion of the fifth month of stay in orbit by the Shenzhou-15 crew: Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu.
The crew members are currently busy with the maintenance work of environmental control and life support systems onboard the space station and continuing with different space experiments, according to the given plan.
Greatly enlarged
The Shenzhou-15 crew is sorting out the remaining supplies brought by the Tianzhou-5 cargo spacecraft last year. “Some consumables will be placed inside the spacecraft and will be burnt up together with the spacecraft during its descent toward the Earth,” reports China Central Television (CCTV).
The Tianzhou-6 is now being readied for launch at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in south China’s Hainan Province.
CCTV reports that the cargo craft is nearly 35 feet (10.6 meters) long and has a liftoff weight of 13.5 tons, consisting of a propulsion section in the lower part and a cargo cabin in the upper half. It can transport up to 7.4 tons of supplies.
“There was an unsealed section for equipment in the cargo cabin but now the equipment was transferred to the propulsion cabin. Therefore, the transport space inside the cargo cabin has been greatly enlarged, with the effective loading capacity rising from 18.1 cubic meters to 22.5 cubic meters, equivalent to an increase of 20 percent,” Wang Ran, chief designer of the cargo spacecraft system under the China Academy of Space Technology told CCTV.
More fruit!
The vehicle will carry 1.75 tons of propellants, including 1,543 pounds (700 kilograms) for the space station, clothing, food, drinking water and fresh fruits for the crewed Shenzhou-15 and 16 missions. The fresh fruits weigh approximately 70 kg, twice as much as that of the Tianzhou-5.
“In the past, due to lack of experience, we were not sure how long the fruits can be kept in space. But now, we have the condition and ability to deliver more fruits to the space station after summarizing our experience of using fresh fruits in space for the past six months and a year,” said Wang.
China’s Tiangong orbital outpost currently consists of three major components – a core module and two science lab modules – and is connected with two visiting craft – the Shenzhou-15 crew ship and the Tianzhou-5 cargo ship.
For an informative video on the upcoming cargo spacecraft launch, go to: