Rocket blasts off carrying first Chinese crew to new space station
17 June, 2021
The first astronauts for China's new space station blasted off on Thursday (Jun 17) for the country's longest crewed mission to date, a landmark part of establishing Beijing as a major space power.
The trio launched on a Long March-2F rocket for the Tiangong station, where they'll spend 90 days, in a blast-off broadcast live on state TV.
Lift-off happened at 9.22am local time from the Jiuquan launch centre in northwest China's Gobi desert, with the rocket lifting off in clouds of smoke against a blue sky.
After about 10 minutes it reached orbit and the area craft separated from the rocket, to loud applause in the control room among rows of blue-suited engineers.
State broadcaster CCTV showed a live feed from inside the spacecraft, with the three astronauts lifting their helmet visors and one smiling and waving at the camera.
Another floated a pen just off his lap in zero-gravity as he browsed the flight manual.
Cameras beyond your craft broadcast live images of the Earth below.
"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 power panels unfolded successfully and today we declare the Shenzhou-12 mission a complete success."
At a ceremony before blastoff, the three astronauts already wearing their space suits greeted a crowd of supporters including family and staff from the area station.
A crowd of space employees and their own families had gathered for the ceremony and sang the patriotic song "Without the Chinese Communist Party, there will be no new China", waving Chinese flags and flowers.
The mission's commander is Nie Haisheng, a decorated air force pilot in the People's Liberation Army who has already participated in two space missions.
The two other members are also members of the military.
SPACE LIFE
Their Shenzhou-12 spacecraft will dock with the Tianhe main portion of the space station, that was located in orbit on Apr 29.
The module has separate living spaces for every of these, a treadmill for exercise, and a communication centre for emails and video calls with ground control.
It is China's first crewed mission in nearly five years.
The launch represents a matter of huge prestige in China, as Beijing prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party on Jul 1 with a massive propaganda campaign.
To get ready for the mission, the crew has undergone a lot more than 6,000 hours of training, including hundreds of underwater somersaults completely space gear.
The Chinese space agency is planning a total of 11 launches through to the finish of next year, including three more manned missions that will deliver two lab modules to expand the 70-tonne station, and supplies and crew members.
The first crew will ensure that you keep up with the systems onboard, conduct spacewalks and undertake scientific experiments.
China's space ambitions have been fuelled in part by a US ban on its astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), a collaboration between your US, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan.
It really is due for retirement after 2024, despite the fact that NASA said it might potentially remain functional beyond 2028.
Tiangong will be much smaller compared to the ISS, and is expected to have a lifespan of at least a decade.
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