Chinese astronauts captured a full-scale image of the space station with Earth in the background.
The Chinese Space Agency has published the first photos of its own Tiangong orbital station, taken at an altitude of approximately 400 kilometers.
The photographs were reportedly taken by the crew of the Shenzhou 16 spacecraft shortly after it left the station.
“The astronauts held high-definition cameras as they circled the spacecraft to photograph the space station assembly,” the Chinese space agency said.
The report noted that this is the first time that a full-scale image of the space station against the backdrop of the Earth was obtained in orbit.
It is known that the Chinese crew of the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft was in orbit for about five months, where they conducted various scientific experiments. The astronauts returned from orbit on October 30, with the capsule making a hard landing in the Gobi Desert due to a parachute malfunction.
The name of the station “Tiangong” means “heavenly palace” in Chinese. It consists of three modules launched into orbit in April 2021, July and October 2022. The station is 55 meters long and weighs about 70 tons, making it about five times smaller than the International Space Station.
The station was completed last year, but images were only released this week.
Let us recall that scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that human blood stem cells were grown for the first time at the Tiangong space station.
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