Long March 5B: China’s new Rocket launch successful

China had launched a new rocket and a deep-space spacecraft to operate a permanent space station and also to send astronauts to moon.

Highlights

China launched the Long March 5B rocket from its Wenchang launch site that is located on the island of Hainan. The rocket is a massive vehicle and is being compared with deep space Orion capsule of NASA.

What is the plan?

The rocket in the future will help China transport astronauts to space station by 2022. The rocket launch will also aid China in its plans of building a huge space station called “Tiangong”.

Tiangong

Tiangong is the space station programme of China. The programme is independent and unconnected to other international space activities. In 2011, China launched its first space laboratory called Tiangong-1. Later, in 2016, the second space laboratory was launched called Tiangong-2.

US and China

The United States is the only country to have sent humans to moon. China on the other hand has carried astronauts to space and has successfully landed a rover to the far side of the moon in 2019. China is now set to land its rover on mars by the end of 2020.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2020