Three Chinse astronauts have arrived at China’s new space station at the start of a three-month mission, marking a milestone in the country’s ambitious space program.
jiuquan, China — Three Chinese astronauts arrived Thursday at China’s new space station at the start of a three-month mission, marking another milestone in the country’s ambitious space program. Their Shenzhou-12 craft connected with the space station module about six hours after taking off from the Jiuquan launch center on the edge of the Gobi Desert.
About three hours later, commander Nie Haisheng, 56, followed by Liu Boming, 54, and space rookie Tang Hongbo, 45, opened the hatches and floated into the Tianhe-1 core living module. Pictures showed them busy at work unpacking equipment. “This represents the first time Chinese have entered their own space station,” state broadcaster CCTV said on its nightly news broadcast.
The crew will conduct experiments, test equipment, conduct maintenance, and prepare the station to receive two laboratory modules next year. The mission brings to 14 the number of astronauts China has launched into space since 2003, becoming only the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to do so on its own.
All appears to have gone smoothly so far. China’s leaders hope the mission will be a completee success as the ruling Communist Party prepares to celebrate the centenary of its founding next month.
Space officials saw off the astronauts, other uniformed military personnel, and a crowd of children waving flowers and flags and singing patriotic songs before blasting off at 9:22 a.m.. (0122 GMT) atop a Long March-2F Y12 rocket.
The rocket dropped its boosters two minutes into the flight, followed by the cowling surrounding Shenzhou-12. After about 10 minutes, it separated from the rocket’s upper section, extended its solar panels, and entered orbit.
About a half-dozen adjustments occurred over the following six hours to line up the spaceship for docking with the Tianhe-1, or Heavenly Harmony, module at about 4 p.m. (0800 GMT).
The travel time is down from the two days it took to reach China’s earlier experimental space stations due to “a great many breakthroughs and innovations,” the mission’s deputy chief designer, Gao Xu, told state broadcaster CCTV.
“So the astronauts can have a good rest in space which should make them less tired,” Gao said. Other improvements include increasing the number of automated and remote-controlled systems that should “significantly lessen the pressure on the astronauts,” Gao said.
Two astronauts on those past missions were women, and while this first station crew was all-male, women are expected to be part of future station crews.
The mission is the third of 11 planned through next year to add sections to the station and send up crews and supplies. A fresh three-member pack and a cargo ship with reserves will be sent in three months.
China is not a participant in the International Space Station, primarily due to U.S. objections to the secrecy of the Chinese program and closed military ties. However, China has been cooperating with Russia and a host of other countries, and its station may continue operating beyond the International Space Station, which is reaching the end of its functional life.
Last month, China landed a probe on Mars that carried a rover, the Zhurong, and earlier landed a probe and rover on the moon’s less explored far side and brought back the first lunar samples by any country’s space program in the 1970s.
China and Russia this week also unveiled an ambitious plan for a joint International Lunar Research Station running through 2036. That could compete and possibly conflict with the multinational Artemis Accords, a space cooperation blueprint supporting NASA’s plans to return humans to the moon by 2024 and launch a historic human mission to Mars.
After the Tianhe-1 was launched in April, the rocket that carried it into space made an uncontrolled reentry to Earth, though China dismissed the potential safety hazard. Usually, discarded rocket stages reenter the atmosphere soon after liftoff, generally over water, and don’t go into orbit.
The rocket used Thursday is of a different type, and the components that will reenter are expected to burn up long before they could be a danger, said Ji Qiming, assistant director of the China Manned Space Agency.