CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -Russian state media have suggested that the launch of the first stage is planned for 2025-26 and no later than 2030.

Detailed explanation-2: -On Nov. 29, 2022, the Shenzhou 15 mission launched from China’s Gobi Desert carrying three taikonauts – the Chinese word for astronauts. Six hours later, they reached their destination, China’s recently completed space station, called Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace” in Mandarin.

Detailed explanation-3: -In fact, in January 2022, Indian Space Research Organisation too announced plans to send a space station by 2030 in furtherance of the Gaganyaan mission, the country’s first manned space mission.

Detailed explanation-4: -MOSCOW - Russia will pull out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country’s new space chief said Tuesday amid high tensions between Moscow and the West over the fighting in Ukraine.

Detailed explanation-5: -China is only the third country in history to have put both astronauts into space and to build a space station, after the Soviet Union (now Russia) and the US. China hopes Tiangong will replace the International Space Station (ISS), which is due to be decommissioned in 2031.