Tiangong space station
A rendering of the station with the Tianhe at centre of picture, a Tianzhou on its aft port, the Wentian on its starboard port to the left, the Mengtian on its portside port to the right and two Shenzhou spacecraft, sharing its multi-docking hub | |
| Station statistics | |
|---|---|
| Crew |
|
| Launch | |
| Launch pad | Wenchang, LC-101 |
| Mass | ~100,000 kg (220,000 lb) |
| Length | ~55.6 m (182 ft) |
| Diameter | ~39 m (128 ft) |
| Pressurised volume |
|
| Periapsis altitude | 386.4 km (240.1 mi) |
| Apoapsis altitude | 391.8 km (243.5 mi) |
| Orbital inclination | 41.47° |
| Orbital speed | 7.67 km/s (27,600 km/h; 17,200 mph) |
| Orbital period | 92.3 minutes |
| Days in orbit | 4 years, 10 months, 19 days as of 19 March 2026 |
| Days occupied | 4 years, 6 months, 12 days as of 19 March 2026 |
| Statistics as of 25 April 2024 (unless noted otherwise) References: | |
| Configuration | |
Station elements as of April 2024 (exploded view) | |
| Tiangong space station | |||||||||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 天宫空间站 | ||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 天宮空間站 | ||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "Heavenly Palace Space Station" | ||||||||||||||
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The Tiangong space station (Chinese: 天宫空间站; pinyin: Tiāngōng kōngjiānzhàn; lit. 'Heavenly Palace space station') is a permanently crewed space station constructed by China and operated by China Manned Space Agency. Tiangong is a modular design, with modules docked together while in low Earth orbit, between 340 and 450 km (210 and 280 mi) above the surface. It is China's first long-term space station, part of the Tiangong program and the core of the "Third Step" of the China Manned Space Program; it has a pressurised volume of 340 m3 (12,000 ft3), slightly over one third the size of the International Space Station. The space station aims to provide opportunities for space-based experiments and a platform for building capacity for scientific and technological innovation.
The construction of the station is based on the experience gained from its precursors, Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2. The first module, the Tianhe core module, was launched on 29 April 2021. This was followed by multiple crewed and uncrewed missions and the addition of two laboratory modules. The first, Wentian, launched on 24 July 2022; the second, Mengtian, launched on 31 October 2022.