At the height of 408 km above the Earth’s surface, the International Space Station (ISS) floats around our planet. The station serves as a laboratory where the participants can run experiments in a weightless environment. Gravity is one of the fundamental forces of nature that keeps our feet to the ground and has made possible the existence of planets, stars, and even galaxies. But the ISS crew proves us that sometimes things are going better without gravity.
A country outside the ones involved for the International Space Station project wants to prove to the world that it’s capable of doing something similar. China is that country, and building a scientific lab that floats above the Earth, just like the ISS, is part of its plans.
Expected to be done by 2023
While the future spacecraft will also serve as a place for scientific experiments in a similar way as the ISS, the idea is actually part of a more ambitious plan. China will also send 11 rockets into space, more precisely two experiment modules, four crewed spacecraft, and four cargo vehicles.
Zhou Jianping, who is the chief designer of China’s human spaceflight program, was the one who revealed the ambitious plan at a conference in Beijing Tuesday. The upcoming spacecraft is also called ‘Heavenly Palace’, and making it capable of competing with the International Space Station sounds ridiculous for the most people. The ISS conducted many useful experiments during its 21 years of activity since it was launched in November 1998.
The International Space Station (ISS) is a project between five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). We’re eagerly waiting for further info to come about China’s plans to rival the ISS, as the Asian country claims that the intentions behind the plan are as peaceful as they can be.
