In the early hours of this morning, the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft was successfully launched at the Wenchang Space Launch Site of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The launch marks the victory of the first battle of the Chinese space station construction mission in 2022, and also announces that the Chinese space station is one step closer to completion.
After the space station entered the construction phase, Tianzhou-4 was both the first launch and the first spacecraft. The Tianzhou-4 mission took less than 30 days from the time the rocket arrived at the launch site to the ignition.
Mao Wanbiao, deputy director of Xichang Satellite Launch Center: This year is a key year for the construction of the space station, and our Wenchang Cosmodrome not only has to launch the Wentian and Dream Experiment Modules, but also undertakes 2 cargo spacecraft launch missions. The Tianzhou-4 mission is the first flight of this year's space station mission, which optimizes the test launch process and the launch day refueling process, which not only greatly shortens the test launch cycle, improves the comprehensive launch capability of the launch site, but also improves the launch reliability.
The significant reduction of the launch preparation time is inseparable from the hard work of the front-line aerospace workers of the project, and also from the scientific optimization of the launch process.
Wang Yuliang, commander of Tianzhou-4 mission 01: In this mission, we carried out various tasks according to the optimized test launch process, comprehensively identified major technical status changes, test project optimization and other difficult problems, carried out 25 major problem studies around 5 aspects such as major technical state change response and test project optimization, continuously improved various program plans, and carefully prepared, carefully organized and carefully implemented throughout the process, laying a solid foundation for the successful success of the mission.
It is reported that in addition to the Launch Mission of Tianzhou-4, Wenchang Cosmodrome will also carry out three space station construction tasks this year, namely the Wentian Experimental Module, the Dream Heaven Experimental Module, and the Tianzhou-5 Cargo Spacecraft, at which time the Chinese space station will be fully completed and make new contributions to building a space power.
Source: CCTV News