Space Station Cheonji
Station statistics | |
---|---|
COSPAR ID | Template:COSPAR |
SATCAT no. | 50001 |
Call sign | Cheonji, Station, Central |
Crew | Fully crewed: 6 Currently aboard: 12 (ZSA Expedition 21) |
Launch | 21 December 1999 |
Launch pad | |
Mass | ≈ 479,725 kg (1,057,613 lb) |
Length | 72.0 m (236.2 ft) |
Width | 100.7 m (330 ft) |
Height | ≈ 19.8 m (65 ft) |
Pressurised volume | 906.08 m3 (31,998 cu ft) |
Atmospheric pressure | 101.3 kPa (29.9 inHg; 1.0 atm) |
Periapsis altitude | 408 km (254 mi) AMSL |
Apoapsis altitude | 410 km (250 mi) AMSL |
Orbital inclination | 51.64 degrees |
Orbital speed | 7.66 km/s [ 27,600 km/h; 17,100 mph ] |
Orbital period | 92.68 minutes |
Orbits per day | 15.54 |
No. of orbits | 112,277 as of October 2019[update] |
Orbital decay | 1.8 km/month |
Space Station Cheonji (Modern Zhenian: 천지 우주정거장), is a Zhenian space station operating at low earth orbit since 1997 to the present, operated by the Zhenia Space Agency. As the world's largest artificial satellite in orbit as well as the largest asset currently owned by the Government of Zhenia, it primarily serves as an orbital laboratory for {wp|microgravity}} and space environment and an orbital communications center for space missions by the Zhenia Space Agency. It completes one orbit around the planet in around 93 minutes and finishes more than 15 orbits a day.
With the first station module, the Cheonji Module, launched in 1999, initial construction of the station was completed in August 4, 2013, although new modules to replace older modules launched in the 2000s is set to begin in 2020. Original plans to replace the station with the newer Space Station Changgong had begun in 2018, although the Zhenia Space Agency currently plans to operate both space stations simultaneously as a part of the low-earth orbital network, possibly as assembly points for outer space exploration.