Wentian: China’s Wentian space laboratory and its carriera Long March 5B rocket were moved to a service tower on Monday morning to undergo final tests before their planned flight in the coming days, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
The agency said in a brief statement that prelaunch preparations will begin at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southernmost island province of Hainan. No other details were provided. The agency also unveiled the mission’s logo on Monday.
Wentian, or “Quest for the Heavens”, will be the Tiangong space station’s first lab component. The craft weighs more than 20 metric tons and is about six stories tall. It consists of three major parts a crew work compartment, an unpressurized cargo module and a control module.Scientific cabinets inside the Wentian lab will mainly be used to perform biological and life science tasks and will support research on the growth, aging and genetic traits of plants, animals and microbes in space, said Lin Xiqiang, deputy head of the China Manned Space Agency. To prepare for Wentian’s arrival, the Tianzhou 3 cargo spacecraft detached from Tiangong on Sunday morning so its docking hatch can receive the lab. Tianzhou, which was launched in September 2021 and had remained connected to Tiangong since, will be guided back to Earth by ground controllers.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
