China has disclosed details of its future space station following the construction of one of its key parts by engineers.The Chinese multimodule space station, named Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, will be mainly composed of three parts - a core module attached to two space labs - having a combined weight of 66 metric tons, said Zhou Jianping, chief designer of the nation's manned space program. Zhou spoke on Tuesday at a space industry conference in Harbin, provincial capital of Heilongjiang.The station will become heavier with the gradual installation of equipment for experiments and docking by visiting spacecraft. It will be capable of docking with up to three spacecraft at a time, Zhou said.The designer said once the station begins its operations in orbit about 393 kilometers above Earth, it will be manned by three astronauts in extended shifts that will last several months. During handovers between shifts, the station will accommodate up to six astronauts.The station will be able to carry more than 10 tons of scientific and experimental equipment and it will have 26 internal payload cabinets, 67 external hatches designed to dock with medium-sized extravehicular apparatuses and four external points for towing large instruments.The core module, Tianhe, or Harmony of Heavens, will control the station and dock with visiting manned spacecraft and cargo ships, Zhou said. It will accommodate astronauts and contain supplies, and will be used to support astronauts' extravehicular activities.The China Academy of Space Technology said this month that engineers have constructed the core module and are testing it.The two space labs, Wentian, or Quest for Heavens, and Mengtian, or Dreaming of Heavens, will mainly perform scientific and technological experiments.In addition, a space telescope will fly with the space station in the same orbit to perform observations of deep space and Earth. It will have a viewing angle 200 times wider than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, and will dock with the space station when it needs maintenance or refueling, Zhou said.The astronauts will carry out experiments inside the space station in more than 10 scientific and technological fields such as space medicine, microgravity fluid physics and combustion and space material sciences, he said. The station also will be open to commercial activities to help foster China's space economy.China will start putting together its first manned space station around 2020, according to government plans. First, a Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket, which is being developed by Chinese scientists, will put the station's core module into orbit that year. Next, about four manned spaceflights will be made to send astronauts to assemble the station.The space station is expected to be fully operational around 2022 and is set to operate for at least 10 years, according to the China Manned Space Agency. In 2024, it likely will become the world's only space station if the United States-led International Space Station is retired that year as planned. make custom bracelets onlinesilicone rubber braceletsbest buy wristbandcustom wristbands canadaprinted wristband
SEOUL -- The Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday agreed to hold a summit on April 27 in the truce village of Panmunjom, the first meeting between the leaders of the two sides in 11 years.The agreement was reached during a high-level dialogue between the two sides, which were held earlier in the day at Tongilgak, a DPRK building in Panmunjom.A joint statement from the high-level talks said Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to hold their third summit on April 27 at Peace House, a ROK building in Panmunjom.If held as agreed upon, top DPRK leader Kim Jong-un would become the country's first leader to set foot on the ROK territory since the 1950-53 Korean war ended in armistice.The first and second inter-Korean summits were held in Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007, respectively.Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, who led the three-member ROK delegation to the high-level talks, told a press briefing that the two sides sufficiently exchanged views on the summit agenda.If necessary, the two sides will hold another senior-level dialogue on the summit agenda in April, Cho said, noting that the two sides shared a view on preparations for the inter-Korean summit that is sincere and candid.Based on a shared view that the April summit will have a significant, historical meaning in denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, settling peace on the peninsula and developing inter-Korean relations, the ROK and the DPRK agreed to make joint efforts for the successful summit, the unification minister noted.The two sides also agreed to hold working-level talks at the ROK side in Panmunjom on April 4 to discuss protocol, security service and press report. A separate dialogue on communications will also be held, according to the joint statement.Other practical issues, which can be raised, will be discussed in the form of letter exchange, the joint statement said.The inter-Korean summit would be followed by a summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump, who said he would meet the DPRK leader by the end of May.For Thursday's high-level dialogue, the ROK delegation included Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung, and senior presidential secretary for public relations Yoon Young-chan.From the DPRK side, the chief delegate was Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRF). Two other delegates were CPRF vice chairman Jon Jong-su and CPRF director Kim Myong-il.
