page_title: Chinese large modular space station
section_title: Modules
hierarchical_section_title: Chinese large modular space station / Structure / Modules
caption_attribution_description: English: Panel views of the Chinese Tianhe Space Station core module
context_page_description: The Chinese large modular space station is a planned space station to be placed in Low Earth orbit. The planned Chinese Space Station will be roughly one-fifth the mass of the International Space Station and about the size of the decommissioned Russian Mir space station. The Chinese station is expected to have a mass between 80 and 100 tonnes. Operations will be controlled from the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center in China. The planned launch date of the core module, the Tianhe, is 2021. In 2017, the Chinese launched the Tianzhou-1 cargo spaceship, which is based on the Tiangong 1 and 2 space laboratories.
context_section_description: The 'Tianhe' Core Cabin Module provides life support and living quarters for three crew members, and provides guidance, navigation, and orientation control for the station. The module also provides the station's power, propulsion, and life support systems. The module consists of three sections, living quarters, service section and a docking hub. The living quarters will contain a kitchen and toilet, fire control equipment, atmospheric processing and control equipment, computers, scientific apparatus, communications equipment to send and receive communications via ground control in Beijing, and other equipment. A Canadian-style SSRMS robotic arm will be transported into space folded under the Tisane service section. Additionally, the Wentian experiment (described below) will also carry a duplicate stowed second SSRMS robotic arm. In 2018 fullscale mockup of CCM was publicly presented at China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai. The video from CNSA revealed that the Chinese have built two of these core modules. Artist impressions have also depicted the two core modules docked together to enlarge the overall station. 
  The first of two Laboratory Cabin Modules 'Wentian' & 'Mengtian' respectively, will provide additional navigation avionics, propulsion and orientation control as backup functions for the CCM. Both LCMs will provide a pressurised environment for researchers to conduct science experiments in freefall or microgravity which could not be conducted on Earth for more than a few minutes. Experiments can also be placed on the outside of the modules for exposure to the space environment, cosmic rays, vacuum, and solar winds.
  Like Mir and the Russian orbital segment of the ISS, the CSS modules will be carried fully assembled into orbit, in contrast to the US Orbital Segment of the ISS, which required spacewalking to interconnect cables, piping, and structural elements manually. The axial port of the LCMs will be fitted with rendezvous equipment and will first dock to the axial port of the CCM. A mechanical arm similar to the Russian Lyappa arm used on the Mir space station will then move the module to a radial port of the CCM.
caption: Panel views of the Chinese Tianhe Space Station core module
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