June 3, 2023: The Shenzhou-16 spacecraft carried astronauts who will spend the next five months aboard China's Tiangong space station. Continue reading to know more!
On Tuesday, May 30, China launched a spacecraft carrying three astronauts, including its first civilian astronaut, to its Tiangong space station. Since 2021, the nation has sent five manned missions to operational space stations.
The Shenzhou-16 spacecraft, according to official media, was launched at 9:31 am from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert in northwest China on a Long March-2F rocket.
The launch was a "complete success," according to Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre Director Zou Lipeng, and the astronauts "are in good condition."
The Tiangong space station is key to China's "space dream" and was developed after the US disallowed NASA from engaging with China.
The three astronauts, including a civilian, to its Tiangong space station on Tuesday as part of a crew rotation, according to state media.
Jing Haipeng, the mission's principal commander, Zhu Yangzhu, and Gui Haichao—the first Chinese citizen to visit space—make up the Shenzhou-16 crew. The Asian nation has so far sent astronauts who were selected from its People's Liberation Army (PLA).
According to Reuters, Jing, a senior spacecraft pilot who was a member of China's first class of astronaut trainees in the late 1990s, is on his fourth space mission, whereas Zhu and Gui are making their first trip into space.
Zhu is a postdoctoral fellow in aerodynamics, a former university instructor, and a spaceflight engineer, according to Xinhua News Agency. Gui will oversee science experiments at the space station as the mission's payload specialist.
The three astronauts will take the place of the Shenzhou-15 crew, who have been manning the Tiangong space station since November of last year.
For the following five months, the new crew will stay there and conduct "large-scale in-orbit tests and experiments in various fields as planned." The study of unique quantum phenomena, high-precision space time-frequency systems, the confirmation of general relativity, and the genesis of life are among the high-level scientific advances they are anticipated to accomplish, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
The Tiangong space station, which is run by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), was constructed by China after the United States forbade NASA from cooperating with the Asian nation due to a significant risk of surveillance.
The first module of the permanently manned space station was launched into orbit in 2021, and two more modules were added to it in the years that followed.
China's ambitious effort to realise its space goals is the Tiangong space station, which is anticipated to become the only in-orbit outpost for scientific study after the International Space Station's activities are terminated in 2030. Its expansion has already been announced by the nation, and according to Reuters, "the next module is scheduled to dock with the current T-shaped space station to create a cross-shaped structure."
China has also extended an invitation to other nations and businesses to join forces and conduct research aboard its space station. The government has three space missions for its space station application and development this year, CMSA told the media earlier this year.
These include the cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-6, which was launched earlier in May, and the second crewed spaceship Shenzhou-17 later in 2023, in addition to the launch of Shenzhou-16.