The Tiangong-1 Station (Also known as the "Chinese Station") was the Chinese Space Station through the Tiangong program.
It was a major setting for Gravity and had a track on the soundtrack of the same name.
Role In Gravity
After the debris hit the Explorer Shuttle, Kowalski mentioned the "Chinese Station", later revealed to be Tiangong. Throughout the film, Tiangong was being seen as a speck in the distance, roughly 100 miles from the ISS or mentioned as the only station containing a Shenzou capsule which would allow them to get home. After Ryan Stone reached Tiangong which was narrowly crossing paths with the Soyuz by using a fire extinguisher, she entered the abandoned station as it was quickly losing altitude and entering the atmosphere. Two possible explanations for this are that the debris field wiped it out and forced it to begin a descent or the Chinese government intentionally lowered the spacecraft into the atmosphere to reduce space debris since space travel was stopped by the debris anyway. Stone reached the Shenzou Capsule right as the debris hit and destroyed the station, forcing it to enter the atmosphere and disintegrate.
Trivia
- The real-life Chinese Space station is named Tiangong, "Heavenly Palace." At the time of the film's premiere, it consisted of one small inhabitable module. The Tiangong program's goal is construction of a space station much like the one in the film by 2022. Since Gravity is supposed to take place in the near future (despite use of a space shuttle) this is a possibility.
- The real life Tiangong-1 was also launched in September 2011.
- When Dr. Stone enters the Tiangong, an alarm sounds and a computer plays a recorded warning to the station. The recording is in Mandarin Chinese but when translated it is revealed that the recording says: "Danger! Please evacuate the scene (station) immediately."
- Kowalski says the Tiangong is to the west, and so is China.
- The real life Tiangong-1 is no longer in space. In 2016, the China Manned Space Engineering Office announced that Tiangong was no longer in service. In September, after conceding they had lost control over the station, officials speculated that the station would re-enter and burn up in the atmosphere late in 2017. Tiangong-1 eventually did re-enter the atmosphere over the southern Pacific Ocean, northwest of Tahiti, on April 2, 2018 at 00:15 UTC. Tiangong-2 was launched in September of 2016 but was deorbited as planned in July of 2019. Currently, the Chinese government is planning to launch a space station into orbit, but as of 2020, this has not materialized.
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Ryan gets to the chinese space station - Gravity Scene