CMSEO – Spaceflight Now

Assembly of Chinese space station begins with successful core module launch

April 29, 2021 Stephen Clark

Chinese officials confirmed the successful launch of the first element of the country’s space station early Thursday, laying the keystone to a permanently-inhabited orbiting habitat that could welcome its first astronauts this summer.

First element of Chinese space station ready for liftoff

April 28, 2021 Stephen Clark

The core module of China’s space station is packaged inside the nose cone of a heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket for liftoff late Wednesday (U.S. time), the first of 11 launches to deliver astronauts, supplies, experiments, and new laboratory modules to build out the orbiting complex before the end of 2022.

China’s first Long March 5B rocket launches on crew capsule test flight

May 5, 2020 Stephen Clark

Flying without astronauts on a demonstration flight in Earth orbit, a test model of a next-generation Chinese crew capsule lifted off Tuesday on top of a heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket, the same launcher configuration that will loft segments of China’s planned space station.

China to debut new version of powerful Long March 5 rocket this week

May 4, 2020 Stephen Clark

A prototype for China’s next-generation human-rated spacecraft — flying on a test flight without astronauts — is scheduled to ride a new version of the country’s heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket into orbit this week.

Prototypes for new Chinese crew capsule and space station arrive at launch site

January 24, 2020 Stephen Clark

The next flight of China’s heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket will debut a new configuration designed to launch modules for a Chinese space station. But a demonstration launch of the Long March 5B booster scheduled as soon as April will instead carry a prototype of China’s next-generation deep space crew capsule into orbit on an unpiloted test flight.