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Temstar t1_iui7gja wrote

Reply to comment by OldWrangler9033 in China launches 3rd and final space station component by miso25

There are in fact 3 docking ports after the two lab modules take up the berthing ports. There are plans to use the forward docking port to dock the backup Tianhe-2 core module to then allow another two lab modules in the future in a phase 2 expansion plan which will double the current size.

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leojg t1_iui8got wrote

Don't they also plan to dock their space telescope for mantainance? If I understood correctly they have it orbiting on a similar path but the plan is to dock it on the station from time to time.

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Temstar t1_iui968n wrote

Xuntian Space Telescope is scheduled for launch next year. Yes it will co-orbit with the station and berth to the station once in a while to be serviced by the crew, then move away to do its own observation.

I'm not sure how the docking works though. It may be that Xuntian has a regular docking port and hard docks to the station like a Shenzhou, or alternatively it may not and just have the little grab spots for the stations robotic arm to grab onto.

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generallyanoaf t1_iuivy4b wrote

Are those plans looking realistic or just early proposals for now?

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Temstar t1_iuix0au wrote

Well the Tianhe-2 core module is in storage and all ready to go, it was built together with Tianhe-1 as a backup should the launch go wrong and since it wasn't required it's available for whatever mission you can think of immediately.

Lab 3 and lab 4 do not exist yet, so they will need to be built first. CNSA has expressed interest that they welcome other countries if they want to be a partner and build a module of their own to attach to Tianhe-2. Many years ago Italy expressed interest and came up with a module design called HERD (High Energy cosmic-Ray Detection) but that's probably dead now.

Here's a rough idea of what phase 2 expansion will look like. Obviously lab 3 and 4 are just placeholders and clones of Mengtian and Wentian without the solar panels. Note during phase 2 expansion Tianhe-1's solar panels will be detached and moved to the end of Mengtian and Wentian.

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