China Plans to Expand Space Station, Offering Alternative to NASA’s ISS

China intends to increase the number of modules in its space station from three to six in the upcoming years. This expansion aims to provide astronauts from various countries with an alternative platform for near-Earth missions, as the International Space Station (ISS) led by NASA approaches the end of its operational period.

China’s space station will have a lifespan of more than 15 years, the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a unit of China’s main space contractor, said at the 74th International Space Congress in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Wednesday.

That would be more than the previously announced 10 years.

China’s self-built space station, also known as Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace in Chinese, has been fully operational since late 2022, hosting up to three astronauts at an orbital altitude of 450 km (280 mi).

Tiangong weighs 180 tonnes after being expanded to six modules, still only 40% the mass of the ISS, which can accommodate a crew of seven astronauts. However, the ISS, which has been in orbit for more than two decades, is expected to retire after 2030, at a time when China has said it expects to become a “major space power”.

Chinese state media said last year, after Tiangong became fully operational, that China would not be “hardened” by the retirement of the ISS, adding that “several countries” had asked to send their astronauts to the Chinese station.

But in a blow to China’s space diplomacy efforts, the European Space Agency (ESA) said this year it had no budget or “political” green light to participate in Tiangong, scrapping years of planning for a visit by European astronauts. .

“Abandoning cooperation with China in manned space is clearly short-sighted, revealing that the US-led clash of camps has led to a new space race,” the National Times, a Chinese tabloid, wrote at the time.

Tiangong has become a symbol of China’s growing influence and confidence in its space ambitions, and a challenger to the United States in this field since its isolation from the ISS. US law prohibits it from working directly or indirectly with NASA.

Russia, which contributes to the ISS, has similar plans for space diplomacy, suggesting that Moscow’s BRICS grouping partners – Brazil, India, China and South Africa – could build a module on its space station.

The Russian space agency Roscosmos said last year that it planned to build a space station consisting of six modules that could accommodate up to four cosmonauts.