Tianzhou 4

Tianzhou 4

A 1:144 scale paper model of a Tianzhou spacecraft
Mission type	Tiangong space station resupply
Operator	China National Space Administration
COSPAR ID	2022-050A
SATCAT no.	52509
Mission duration	189 days, 5 hours and 25 minutes
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	Tianzhou
Manufacturer	China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
Dry mass	6,640 kg (14,640 lb)
Dimensions	10.6 × 3.35 m (34.8 × 11.0 ft)
Start of mission
Launch date	9 May 2022, 17:56:37 UTC (10 May, 01:56:37 CST)
Rocket	Long March 7 (Y5)
Launch site	Wenchang, LC-201
Contractor	China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology
End of mission
Disposal	Deorbited
Destroyed	14 November 2022, 23:21 UTC
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	380 km (240 mi)
Apogee altitude	386 km (240 mi)
Inclination	41.46°
Docking with Tiangong space station
Docking port	Tianhe aft
Docking date	10 May 2022, 00:54 UTC
Undocking date	9 November 2022, 06:55 UTC
Time docked	183 days, 6 hours and 1 minute
Mission insignia Tianzhou program

Tianzhou 4 (Chinese: 天舟四号) was the fourth mission of the Tianzhou-class uncrewed cargo spacecraft, and the third resupply mission to Tiangong Space Station carrying 5 tons of cargos and 1 ton of propellant. It is the largest load capacity cargo spacecraft that is on active duty. It launched on 9 May 2022, docking successfully with the Tiangong space station at the aft port 6 hours after launch. Like previous Tianzhou missions, the spacecraft launched from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in Hainan, China on a Long March 7 rocket.

It is a part of the construction of the Tiangong space station, and is the third cargo resupply mission to the already launched Tianhe core module (CCM).

Spacecraft

Main article: Tianzhou (spacecraft)

The Tianzhou cargo spacecraft has several notable differences with the Tiangong-1 from which it is derived. It has only three segments of solar panels (against 4 for Tiangong), but has 4 maneuvering engines (against 2 for Tiangong).

Mission history

On May 7, 2022, the combination of the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft and the Long March 7 Yao-5 carrier rocket are transferred vertically to the launch area.

At 17:56 UTC on May 9, 2022, the Long March 7 Yaowu carrier rocket carrying the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft was successfully launched at the Wenchang Cosmodrome in China. At about 18:06 UTC, the spacecraft and the rocket successfully separated and entered the predetermined orbit, and at 18:23 UTC, the spacecraft's solar sail board began to work.

At 00:54 UTC on May 10, 2022, Tianzhou-4 adopted the autonomous rapid rendezvous and docking mode to successfully dock with the space station Tianhe and the rear port of the core module.

On November 9, 2022, at 06:55 UTC, Tianzhou-4 separated from the space station in preparation for deorbiting, making way for the upcoming Tianzhou 5. It reentered the Earth's atmosphere and burned up as planned on 14 November 2022.

Carriers

Tianzhou-4 loaded astronaut systems, space station systems, space application fields, cargo spacecraft systems a total of more than 200 pieces (sets) of cargo, including cargo package cargo and direct installation cargo, carrying about 750 kg of supplemental propellant, the total weight of uplink materials of about 6,000 kg, for the Shenzhou 14 crew of 3 people 6 months on orbit to stay, space station assembly and construction, space science experiments and so on to provide material support. One of the cargoes was a torque gyroscope weighing 170 kilograms, the heaviest of all the materials currently in transit. A small CubeSat stored onboard Tianzhou-4, Zhixing-3A, was successfully deployed on 13 November 2022.