Image Source: BBC
China’s Manned Space Agency (CMSA) reported on Sunday that it successfully launched another human-crewed mission to its new space station, sending three astronauts to continue construction work for six months.
At 10:44 a.m. local time, the astronauts boarded the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft, launched by a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia’s Gobi Desert.
The scientists will stay and work for six months in the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong Space Station before returning to Earth in December. Tiangong is a Chinese word that means “Heavenly Palace.”
Chen Dong, Liu Yang, and Cai Xuzhe are among the crew members, and they are scheduled to dock with the space station roughly 6.5 hours after launch.
Chen, the mission commander, previously held the record for the most prolonged stay in space by a Chinese astronaut aboard China’s Shenzhou-11 human-crewed space mission in 2016. On the Shenzhou-9 mission in 2012, Liu became the first Chinese woman in space. This will also be Cai’s first space mission.
This is China’s third crewed mission as part of the space station’s construction, which the country hopes to have fully crewed and functioning by December 2022. In September 2021, the first crewed mission, a three-month stay by three other astronauts, was completed. The second, Shenzhou-13, saw three astronauts spend their first six months in space.
For many countries, a six-month trip is routine, but it is a vital opportunity for Chinese astronauts to become used to long-term space stays and help prepare future astronauts to do the same.
Before the end of the year, six space missions have been planned, including another crewed trip, two laboratory modules, and two cargo flights.
The crew of Shenzhou-14 will assist with the docking, setup, and testing of the two laboratory modules, Wentian and Mengtian, which will launch in July and October, respectively.
According to the CMSA, the modules will be joined into a T-shaped structure, together with the Tianhe core cabin — the astronauts’ main living space — which will be extended from 50 cubic meters to 110 cubic meters. The crew will also perform two to three spacewalks.
Another three astronauts will rotate and reside with the crew for five to ten days at the end of the Shenzhou-14 mission, bringing the total number of Chinese astronauts in orbit to a record six.
The Tiangong space station is intended to last for 15 years after being built. According to the CMSA, China wants to send two crewed missions and two cargo missions to the station per year.
On May 29, the Shenzhou-14 crewed spaceship was moved to the launching field at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, together with a Long March-2F carrier rocket.
Last year’s Shenzhou-13 mission was a significant step forward for China’s youthful space program, quickly becoming one of the most advanced in the world.
China’s space program was founded in the early 1970s, many years after American astronaut Neil Armstrong had already landed on the moon. However, the upheaval of China’s Cultural Revolution halted the country’s space program, delaying progress until the early 1990s.
