Facts About Tiangong-1 China’s ‘Heavenly Palace’ In Space

Read About China’s Tiangong-1 Small Space Station

• The Tiangong-1 ‘space-laboratory’ is comprised of two main sections; a service module-type section with its solar panels and propulsion systems, and a larger pressurized 15 cm³ habitable experimental module.
• The station was 10.4 m (34 ft) in length, 3.35 m (11 ft) in diameter and over 8.5 tonnes (18,700 lbs) in mass at launch.
• Tiangong-1 space station was launched aboard the Chinese Long March 2F rocket.
• The Tiangong-1 station was visited by three Shenzhou spacecraft during its time in orbit, firstly the unmanned Shenzhou 8, followed by the Shenzhou 9 and 10 with the first female taikonaut!
• Two crew members can sleep in the Tiangong with a third sleeping in the docked Shenzhou spacecraft.
• On June 20^th 2013, Wang Yaping (China’s second female taikonaut) delivered a remote video lecture from orbit to students across China, demonstrating physics in microgravity.
• The Chinese Space Agency has since launched a new small ‘Heavenly Palace’ called Tiangong-2.
• In late 2016, contact with the decommissioned station was lost so it became another piece of space junk and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere uncontrolled on April 2nd 2018 with reports that it is likely that debris made it to the Earth’s surface.