Chinese astronauts arrive at ISS rival Tiangong space station hours after launching from China, marking five years since the the nation last sent humans into space
- China sent three astronauts to space on its Long March-2F rocket this morning
- They launched from the Jiuquan launch centre in northwest China's Gobi desert
- The trio docked with the stations main module six hours after takeoff from China
- They will spend three months in Tianhe module of the Tiangong space station
- This was the first crewed launch by the Chinese space agency in five years Three Chinese astronauts have successfully docked with the Tiangong space station, six hours after setting off into space for the first time in five years.
The trio launched for the modular space station on a Long March-2F rocket at 02:22 BST this morning from the Jiuquan launch centre in northwest China's Gobi desert.
They took off in the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft, which separated from its carrier rocket about ten minutes after liftoff, finally docking with the station at about 08:00 BST.
There was loud applause in ground control when they reached orbit, in a moment broadcast to classrooms, homes and shopping malls throughout China.
Chinese astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo waved to the camera from their capsule while floating in zero gravity.
They will stay in the main module of the Tiangong space station, known as Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony, for the next three months. The module launched on April 29.
Chinese astronauts salute after successfully entering the Tianhe space station module as they are displayed on a big screen at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing
The Shenzhou-12 spaceship, carrying three Chinese astronauts, approached the Tiangong station just before 08:00 BST after a six hour flight
Chinese astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo are seen inside the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft as China launches the spacecraft via the Long March-2F Y12 carrier rocket on its first crewed mission to build the country's space station
A Long March-2F carrier rocket, carrying the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft and a crew of three astronauts, lifts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi desert, in northwest China
The mission brings to 14 the number of astronauts China has launched into space since 2003.
This makes them only the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to do so on its own.
The rocket dropped its boosters about two minutes into the flight followed by the cowling surrounding Shenzhou-12 at the top of the rocket.
After about 10 minutes, it separated from the rocket's upper section, extended its solar panels and shortly afterward entered orbit.
About a half-dozen adjustments took place over the following six hours to line up the spaceship for docking with the Tianhe module at about 08:00 BST.
The travel time is down from the two days it took to reach China's earlier experimental space stations, a result of a 'great many breakthroughs and innovations,' the mission's deputy chief designer, Gao Xu, told the state broadcaster CCTV.
'So the astronauts can have a good rest in space which should make them less tired,' Gao said.
Other improvements include an increase in the number of automated and remote-controlled systems that should 'significantly lessen the pressure on the astronauts,' Gao said.
State broadcaster CCTV showed a live feed from inside the spacecraft, with the three astronauts lifting their helmet visors and one smiling and waving.
Another floated a pen just off his lap in zero-gravity as he browsed the flight manual once the spacecraft was in orbit around the Earth.
Cameras outside the craft broadcast live images of the Earth below.
It is the first crewed Chinese mission in five years, with all three members of the crew pilots in the Communist Party's military wing, the People's Liberation Army.
The astronauts are watched by China Space officials as they float around the pristine space station module
China's Shenzhou XII manned spacecraft docks with the Tianhe core module. It took the astronauts six hours to reach the station, where they will live for the next three months
Chinese astronauts are seen aboard a Shenzhou-12 spaceship in space as their spaceship approaches the docking port on the Tiangong station
The docking process in space between the Tianhe core module of China's space station involved a number of small movements and changes
The mission's commander, Nie Haisheng, was among the first batch of astronauts selected to be trained in 1998, and has already participated in two missions.
'According to reports from the Beijing aerospace control centre, the Long March-2F rocket has sent the Shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft to the preset orbit,' said Zhang Zhifen, director of the Jiuquan satellite launch centre.
'The solar panels unfolded successfully and now we declare the Shenzhou-12 launch a complete success.'
At a ceremony before blastoff, the three astronauts, already wearing their space suits, greeted a crowd of supporters and space workers, who sang the patriotic song 'Without the Chinese Communist Party, there would be no new China'.
The astronauts flew in the Shenzhou-12 spaceship, launched atop a Long March-2F Y12 rocket at 02:22 BST on Thursday morning from Jiuquan in northwestern Gansu province
Huang Weifen of the China Manned Space Program said the astronauts will perform two spacewalks during the mission, both lasting around six or seven hours.
She also said the trio will wear newly-developed spacewalk spacesuits.
China's desire for a human outpost of its own in Earth orbit was fuelled by a US ban on its astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).
'We are willing to carry out international cooperation with any country that is committed to the peaceful use of outer space,' Ji Qiming of the CMSA said.
Of the 11 missions needed to build the full station, four will be with people on board, potentially propelling up to 12 Chinese astronauts into space.
'The motherland is powerful,' one person wrote on Chinese social media, which has lit up with well-wishes for the Shenzhou-12 crew.
'The launch is a gift to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party.'
To prepare for the mission, the crew has undergone more than 6,000 hours of training, including hundreds of underwater somersaults in full space gear.
The Tianhe builds on experience China gained from operating two experimental space stations earlier in its increasingly ambitious space program.
Chinese astronauts spent 33 days living on the second of the previous stations, carried out a spacewalk and taught science classes that were beamed down to students across the country.
The Tiangong station is a major step in China's ambitious space programme
A man is silhouetted as she walks by a TV screen showing CCTV live telecast of the Long March-2F Y12 rocket carrying a crew of Chinese astronauts in a Shenzhou-12 spaceship
Students watch a live broadcast of the launch of the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft on June 17, 2021 in Hefei, Anhui Province of China
It will be the third modular space station launched, following in the footsteps of the Soviet-era Mir and the International Space Station, but will be closer in size to Mir.
The ISS is due for retirement after 2024, even though NASA said it could potentially remain functional beyond 2028, in part with commercial support.
Tiangong will be much smaller than the ISS, and is expected to have a lifespan of at least 10 years, or more likely closer to 15 years.
China has said it would be open to international collaboration on its space station although it has yet to give specific details
Astronauts Nie Haisheng (C), Liu Boming (R) and Tang Hongbo wave during a departure ceremony in full spacesuits
The trio were celebrated by Chinese officials and people, marking the first crewed flight for the communist nation in five years
Engineers and the public waved the astronauts off before they took to space in the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft
Zhou Jianping, chief designer at the space programme, said 'foreign astronauts are certainly going to enter the Chinese space station one day.'
'There are a number of countries that have expressed a desire to do that and we will be open to that in future,' he said.
The nation has made a huge jump into the space race over the past year, with its most recent accomplish in May when it landed a probe, the Tianwen-1, on Mars that carried a rover, the Zhurong.
The rover has a life expectancy of at least three months and during this time, it will record the Martian landscape with high-resolution three-dimensional images and analyze the material composition of the planet's surface.
The Long March-2F Y12 rocket, carrying the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft and three astronauts, takes off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center for China's first manned mission to build its space station
It is the first crewed Chinese mission in five years, with all three members of the crew pilots in the Communist Party's military wing, the People's Liberation Army
The mission's commander, Nie Haisheng, was among the first batch of astronauts selected to be trained in 1998, and has already participated in two missions
It also plans to put astronauts on the moon - the farthest celestial body that humans have travelled to so far, with NASA due to return in 2024.
China has also brought back lunar samples, the first by any country's space program since the 1970s, and landed a probe and rover on the moon's less explored far side.
The nation landed the return capsule in December, which held samples from a part of the moon known as the Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms.
This was near a site called the Mons Rumker that was believed to have been volcanic in ancient times.
China's desire for a human outpost of its own in Earth orbit was fuelled by a US ban on its astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS)
Of the 11 missions needed to build the full station, four will be with people on board, potentially propelling up to 12 Chinese astronauts into space
To prepare for the mission, the crew has undergone more than 6,000 hours of training, including hundreds of underwater somersaults in full space gear
Visitors look at a life-size model of the Tianhe core module of China's next space station at the Airshow China in Zhuhai in southern China's Guangdong Province in 2018The age of the rocks and soil should help scientists fill a gap in knowledge about the history of the moon between roughly one billion and three billion years ago.
Russia is also working on its own space station, to be operational by the time the ISS reaches the end of its life, or by 2025.
The Chinese space station is said to be compatible with Russian hardware, including Soyuz rockets and capsules and the two nations are working together on a space station in orbit around the moon, similar to the ESA and NASA Lunar Gateway.
CHINA STEPS UP PLANS TO BECOME SPACE SUPERPOWER WITH MARS AND MOON MISSIONS
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