In 2013, despite the complicated and potentially catastrophic conditions of the space environment during the solar maximum year, NSSC scientists guaranteed the overall success of the Shenzhou-10 mission by providing timely space weather forecasts. Unlike weather forecasts on Earth, making accurate predictions of space weather can be very tricky. The exact launch date for Shenzhou-10 as well as the timing for the automatic rendezvous and docking of Shenzhou-10 and Tiangong-1 were determined based on space environment alerts issued daily by scientists at the CAS Space Environment Prediction Center (SEPC). Furthermore, SEPC is responsible for protecting the Tiangong-1 space module from hazardous space weather events throughout the year.

In addition, with the help of the Space Environment Exploration System on board the Tiangong-1 space module, Tiangong-1 became the first space moduleto conduct simultaneous measurement of high-energy electrons and high-energy protons from 16 directions in orbits designated for China’s Manned Space Program

NSSC is also in charge of four subsystems on board the Tiangong-2 space module. Prototype developmenthas concluded for all four systems and they have all entered the flight model phase.