BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd November, 2022) China successfully completed the assembly of the T-shaped Tiangong space station on Thursday with the transposition and redocking of the Mengtian laboratory cabin module to the core module, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said.
"The transposition of the Mengtian laboratory cabin module was successfully completed on November 3 at 9:32 a.m. local time (01:32 GMT) ... The crew of the Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft will enter Mengtian in the afternoon," the CMSA said in a statement.
The process of Mengtian's detachment from the station and docking with the Tianhe core module took about one hour.
"The transposition of the Mengtian laboratory cabin module marks the completion of the Chinese space station's T-shape basic structure assembly," the statement read.
The launch of the Mengtian laboratory module took place at 3:37 p.m. local time (07:37 GMT) on October 31 from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan, using the Long March 5 carrier rocket.
The construction of the T-shaped Tiangong space station officially began in April 2021, when the Tianhe core module was successfully launched into orbit. Two laboratory modules - Wentian and Mengtian - are connected to Tianhe. The station can host up to six people at the same time during a crew rotation change. The operational life of the station is 15 years and should end in 2038.
