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China has launched the first module of a space station and plans to have astronauts inside it to start woking in about a month.

In Astronomy SE they've already started calling it the "Chinese Space Station" or "CSS"

  • This answer to Details on the telescope(s) on the Chinese Space Station 天和
  • and there's a csst tag for the CSS Telescope

To my surprise and chagrin, publications by Chinese academics do cite this kind of naming (e.g. CSS-OS and CSST)

Question: In the west, are there official names for the final space station and the current module?

uhoh
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1 Answers1

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The Chinese space station is called the Tiangong ("Heavenly Palace") as seen in this article from the Chinese National Space Administration.

The core module that has already launched is called the Tianhe ("Harmony of the Heavens").

enter image description here

The rest of the modules, and details of the space station, can be found here.

Freddie R
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    Nice diagram! It looks a lot like an FGB. – Organic Marble May 09 '21 at 23:32
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    For space-word-deficient folks like myself Zarya, also known as the Functional Cargo Block or FGB is the first module of the International Space Station to have been launched – uhoh May 10 '21 at 01:13
  • @FreddieR Thank you for your answer! So while the Chinese scientists call the telescope on board the CSST in technical publications, is it not okay to refer to Tiangong as the CSS the way that we like to refer to the International Space Station ISS? It can't be exactly the same way since Chinese does not lend itself to acronymization, but "TG" for Tian Gong seems like a bad idea and CSS seems at least less-bad. – uhoh May 10 '21 at 01:35
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    Looks closer to the Zvezda service module really, aka DOS stations (Salyut1-7,Mir and Zvezda). When Sino-Russian relations thawed in 1990s, several deals were done over technology and knowledge transfer to the PRC. PRC also bought tech from Ukraine which was then separated from the former Soviet Union and its space program. Mir was the leading edge project at the time so it makes sense this generation forms the base line that the PRC built from. Note the same Lyappa arm that Mir used to reorient subsequent modules (FGB based on TKS spacecraft). – blobbymcblobby May 10 '21 at 01:48
  • @blobbymcblobby check out this picture of the ISS's FGB. http://www.russianspaceweb.com/iss-fgb-launch.html Of course the FGB and the SM look pretty similar. I did notice the Lyappa arm, very nice. – Organic Marble May 10 '21 at 02:10
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    @OrganicMarble I know, it looks similar, but the FGB was more of an autonomous module (when separated from its VA capsule), the DOS was a fully self-contained space station. Its pretty much a stretched Mir..with improvements of course. https://imgur.com/vmhlwoF – blobbymcblobby May 10 '21 at 02:16
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    @OrganicMarble I Suppose the biggest difference and the biggest similarity is aft. The FGB design keeps the conical aft section, whereas the DOS design - around 2-3m of it - is unpressurized machinery area surrounding the transfer tunnel and retains the diameter of the pressurized operational compartment. – blobbymcblobby May 10 '21 at 02:32
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    Thanks again! fyi I've just created the tag tiangong-space-station, how does it look? – uhoh May 30 '21 at 00:59