At a press conference held by the State Council Information Office today (17th), Hao Chun, director of China’s manned Changzheng Engineering Co.Ltd(603698) office, said that after completing the on orbit construction of the space station this year, the project will enter the application and development stage of more than 10 years.
Hao Chun said that the initial plan is to launch two manned spacecraft and two cargo spacecraft every year. Astronauts should stay in orbit for a long time, carry out space science and technology experiments, and take care of and maintain the space station. In order to further improve the comprehensive ability and technical level of the project, a new generation of manned launch vehicles and manned spacecraft will be developed. Among them, the return modules of the new generation of manned launch vehicles and manned spacecraft can be reused. The comprehensive capability of the new generation of manned spacecraft has also been greatly improved, which can carry seven astronauts. In addition, its uplink and downlink load capacity has also been greatly improved. At the same time, we are considering developing an extended module of the space station to further support on orbit scientific experiments and create better conditions for the work and life of astronauts.
In addition, in the application and development stage of the space station over the past decade, the scientific experiment cabinet arranged in the space station cabin and large-scale load facilities outside the cabin will also be used to carry out larger-scale space research experiments and new technology experiments. It mainly involves many fields, such as space life science and human body research, microgravity physical science, space astronomy and earth science, new aerospace technology and so on. In addition, especially next year, we plan to launch China’s first large-scale space Sky Survey Telescope to carry out wide area sky survey observation. We will carry out cutting-edge scientific research in the formation and evolution of cosmic structure, dark matter and dark energy, extrasolar planets and solar system objects, and are expected to achieve a number of major innovative achievements.
We will also actively explore the commercial development mode of manned spaceflight, absorb social forces to participate in the construction, operation and maintenance of the space station, continuously improve the comprehensive benefits of the space station and promote the high-quality development of manned spaceflight.
