BEIJING (Reuters) – China launched a new three-person mission on Sunday to complete assembly work on its space station in permanent orbit.
The Shenzhou 14 crew will spend six months on Tiangong Station, during which they will oversee the addition of two lab modules to join Tianhe’s main living space which was launched in April 2021.
Their spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert at 10:44 a.m. (0244 GMT) atop the crewed spaceflight program’s Long March 2F rocket. Fifteen minutes later, it reached low Earth orbit and opened its solar panels, drawing applause from ground controllers in Jiuquan and Beijing.
The launch was broadcast live on state television, indicating a growing level of confidence in the capabilities of the space program, which was promoted as a sign of China’s technological progress and global influence.
Commander Chen Dong and fellow astronauts Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe will assemble the three-module structure joining the existing Tianhe with Wentian and Mengtian, which are expected to arrive in July and October. Another freighter, the Tianzhou-3, remains moored at the station.
The arrival of the new modules “will bring more stability, more powerful functions, more complete equipment,” said Chen, 43, who was a member of the Shenzhou 11 mission in 2016, at a press conference on Saturday.
Liu, 43, is also a space veteran and was the first female Chinese astronaut to reach space aboard the Shenzhou 9 mission in 2012. Cai, 46, is making her first trip to space.
China’s space program launched its first astronaut into orbit in 2003, making it the third country to do so alone after the former Soviet Union and the United States.
It has landed robot rovers on the moon and placed one on Mars last year. China has also returned lunar samples, and officials have discussed a possible crewed mission to the Moon.
China’s space program is run by the military wing of the ruling Communist Party, the People’s Liberation Army, prompting the United States to bar it from the International Space Station.
Chen, Liu and Cai will be joined at the end of their three-to-five-day mission by the crew of the upcoming Shenzhou 15, marking the first time the station will have six people on board.
The Shenzhou 14 crew will spend six months on Tiangong Station, during which they will oversee the addition of two lab modules to join Tianhe’s main living space which was launched in April 2021.
Their spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert at 10:44 a.m. (0244 GMT) atop the crewed spaceflight program’s Long March 2F rocket. Fifteen minutes later, it reached low Earth orbit and opened its solar panels, drawing applause from ground controllers in Jiuquan and Beijing.
The launch was broadcast live on state television, indicating a growing level of confidence in the capabilities of the space program, which was promoted as a sign of China’s technological progress and global influence.
Commander Chen Dong and fellow astronauts Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe will assemble the three-module structure joining the existing Tianhe with Wentian and Mengtian, which are expected to arrive in July and October. Another freighter, the Tianzhou-3, remains moored at the station.
The arrival of the new modules “will bring more stability, more powerful functions, more complete equipment,” said Chen, 43, who was a member of the Shenzhou 11 mission in 2016, at a press conference on Saturday.
Liu, 43, is also a space veteran and was the first female Chinese astronaut to reach space aboard the Shenzhou 9 mission in 2012. Cai, 46, is making her first trip to space.
China’s space program launched its first astronaut into orbit in 2003, making it the third country to do so alone after the former Soviet Union and the United States.
It has landed robot rovers on the moon and placed one on Mars last year. China has also returned lunar samples, and officials have discussed a possible crewed mission to the Moon.
China’s space program is run by the military wing of the ruling Communist Party, the People’s Liberation Army, prompting the United States to bar it from the International Space Station.
Chen, Liu and Cai will be joined at the end of their three-to-five-day mission by the crew of the upcoming Shenzhou 15, marking the first time the station will have six people on board.
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