Astronauts blasting off today for China’s first crewed mission to its new space station would have a choice of 120 different types of food and “space treadmills” for exercise during their stay, China’s space agency said.
The mission would be China’s longest crewed space mission to date, and the first in nearly five years, as Beijing pushes forward with its ambitious program to establish itself as a space power.
The astronauts are to spend three months on the station, which has separate living modules for each of them, as well as a shared bathroom, dining area, and communications center to send e-mails and for video calls with ground control.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The trio could work off their range of dinner options — which officials assured reporters were all nutritious and tasty — on space treadmills or bicycles.
The Long March-2F rocket that would get them there is scheduled to lift off at 9:22am from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said yesterday.
“Over the past decades we have written several glorious chapters in China’s space history, and this mission embodies the expectations of the people and the party itself,” the mission’s commander, Nie Haisheng (聶海勝), told reporters at a later news conference.
Photo: AFP
His team has undergone more than 6,000 hours of training, including hundreds of underwater somersaults in full space gear, to become accustomed to the weight of the suits when doing spacewalks.
Nie was among the first batch of astronauts selected to be trained in 1998, and has already participated in two spaceflight missions. He is a decorated air force pilot in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, and the others in his team are also members of the Chinese military.
Asked what he would pack for the long trip, Nie — speaking from behind a glass wall to prevent COVID-19 infection — said his bag was full of “things for entertainment and for hosting mini get-togethers.”
Their Shenzhou-12 spacecraft will dock with the main section of the Tiangong space station, named Tianhe, which was placed in orbit on April 29. Another 11 missions are planned over the next year and a half to complete the construction of Tiangong in orbit, including the attachment of solar panels and two laboratory modules.
The astronauts would be testing and maintaining the systems onboard, conducting spacewalks and undertaking scientific experiments.
The mission is a matter of prestige for the government as it prepares to mark the 100th birthday of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1 with a propaganda blitz.
“Over the past decades, we have been struggling every minute to realize our space dreams. I have dedicated myself to the cause,” astronaut Liu Boming (劉伯明) said.
China’s desire for a human outpost of its own in Earth orbit was fueled by a US ban on its astronauts on the International Space Station.
“We are willing to carry out international cooperation with any country that is committed to the peaceful use of outer space,” Ji Qiming (季啟明), assistant to the director of the CMSA, told reporters yesterday.
The International Space Station is due for retirement after 2024, although NASA has said it could potentially remain functional beyond 2028.
Tiangong is expected to have a lifespan of at least 10 years.
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