![]() Model of Tiangong-1 with docked Shenzhou crewed spacecraft. | |
Station statistics | |
---|---|
COSPAR ID | 2011-053A |
SATCAT no. | 37820 |
Launch | 29 September 2011, 13:16:03.507 UTC[1][2] |
Carrier rocket | Long March 2F/G |
Launch pad | Jiuquan, LA-4/SLS-1 |
Reentry | 2 April 2018, 00:16 UTC [3][4]
2 April 2018 00:15 UTC (China Manned Space Engineering Office)[5] |
Mission status | Deorbited [4] |
Mass | 8,506 kg (18,753 lb)[6] |
Length | 10.4 m (34 ft) |
Diameter | 3.35 m (11.0 ft) |
Pressurised volume | 15 m3 (530 cu ft) [7] |
Days occupied | 20 days, 18.5 hours (Hatch open to hatch closed)[8] |
Configuration | |
![]() Plan diagram of Tiangong-1 with solar panels extended |
Tiangong-1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Simplified Chinese | 天宫一号 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 天宮一號 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | Celestial Palace-1 or Heavenly Palace-1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
Target Vehicle | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 目标飞行器 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 目標飛行器 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | Target Vehicle | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Tiangong-1 (Chinese: 天宫一号; pinyin: Tiāngōng yīhào; lit. 'Heaven's Palace-1" or "Celestial Palace-1"') was China's first prototype space station.[9] It orbited Earth from September 2011 to April 2018, serving as both a crewed laboratory and an experimental testbed to demonstrate orbital rendezvous and docking capabilities during its two years of active operational life.[10][11]
Launched uncrewed aboard a Long March 2F launch vehicle on 29 September 2011,[1][12] it was the first operational component of the Tiangong program, which launched a larger, modular station into orbit in 2021.[10][13] Tiangong-1 was initially projected to be deorbited in 2013,[14] to be replaced over the following decade by the larger Tiangong-2 and Tiangong-3 space stations,[15] but it orbited until 2 April 2018.[3][4][5][16][17]
Tiangong-1 was visited by a series of Shenzhou spacecraft during its two-year operational lifetime. The first of these, the uncrewed Shenzhou 8, successfully docked with the module in November 2011,[18][19] while the crewed Shenzhou 9 mission docked in June 2012.[20][21][22] A third and final mission to Tiangong-1, the crewed Shenzhou 10, docked in June 2013.[23][24][25] The crewed missions to Tiangong-1 were notable for including China's first female astronauts, Liu Yang and Wang Yaping.[24][26]
On 21 March 2016, after a lifespan extended by two years, the China Manned Space Engineering Office announced that Tiangong-1 had officially ended its service.[27][28] They went on to state that the telemetry link with Tiangong-1 had been lost.[29] A couple of months later, amateur satellite trackers watching Tiangong-1 found that China's space agency had lost control of the station.[29] In September 2016, after conceding they had lost control over the station, officials speculated that the station would re-enter and burn up in the atmosphere late in 2017.[30][31] According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, Tiangong-1 started reentry over the southern Pacific Ocean, northwest of Tahiti, on 2 April 2018 at 00:16 UTC.[4][5][16][17]
spacedaily1
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).daily
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).U.S. Strategic Command's (USSTRATCOM) Joint Force Space Component Command (JFSCC), through the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC), confirmed Tiangong-1 reentered the Earth's atmosphere over the southern Pacific Ocean at approximately 17:16 (PST) 1 April 2018.
Xin
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).sdc20110307
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).chinadaily20110914
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).ShenzhouDock
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).AFPSecondDock
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Dock2012
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Jun2013
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).TenDock
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Tel16June
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).xinhuanet-failure
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).:0
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).