News– China launched its Shenzhou-21 mission, carrying a new crew—including its youngest astronaut—to the Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”) Space Station aboard a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Launch Centre.
About the Shenzhou-21 Mission
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About Tiangong Space Station: “Heavenly Palace”
- It is China’s own permanently crewed space station in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
- Objective
- To build a permanent and reliable space station in Earth’s orbit.
- To ensure the health and safety of astronauts living there for long durations.
- To create a platform for scientific and technological research in space.
- Size & Capacity:
- Much smaller than the International Space Station (ISS), Tiangong consists of three main modules, compared to ISS’s 16.
- It weighs about 80–100 tons, roughly one-fifth the mass of the ISS.
- Designed to host three astronauts for up to six months, and six astronauts during crew handovers.
- Significance– The station functions as a space laboratory, equipped with 23 experiment racks for studies in:
- Space life sciences and biotechnology
- Microgravity physics and combustion
- Material science in space
- Fundamental physics under microgravity conditions.
