The first astronauts for China’s new space station yesterday blasted off for the country’s longest crewed mission to date.
The three astronauts launched on a Long March-2F rocket for the Tiangong station — where they are to spend three months — in a much-anticipated blastoff broadcast live on state TV.
Liftoff happened at 9:22am from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s Gobi Desert, with the rocket rising in clouds of smoke against a blue sky.
Photo: Reuters
After about 10 minutes it reached orbit altitude and the spacecraft separated from the rocket to loud applause in the control room among rows of blue-suited engineers.
China Central Television showed a live feed from inside the spacecraft, with the three astronauts lifting their visors, and one smiling and waving at the camera.
Another floated a pen just above his lap as he browsed the flight manual.
Cameras outside the craft broadcast live images of the Earth.
“According to reports from the Beijing aerospace control center, the Long March-2F rocket has sent the Shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft to the preset orbit,” Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center director Zhang Zhifen (張志芬) said. “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 Without the Chinese Communist Party, there would be no new China.
The mission’s commander is Nie Haisheng (聶海勝), a pilot in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force who has already participated in two space missions.
The two other members are also members of the military.
Their spacecraft was to dock with the Tianhe main section of the space station, which was placed in orbit on April 29, possibly as soon as six hours after liftoff.
The module has separate living spaces for each of them, a “space treadmill” and bike for exercise, and a communications center for e-mails and video calls with ground control.
It is China’s first crewed mission in nearly five years.
Huang Weifen (黃偉芬) of the China Manned Space Program said that the astronauts would perform two spacewalks during the mission, both lasting six or seven hours.
The trio would wear newly developed spacewalk spacesuits, Huang said.
To prepare for the mission, the crew underwent more than 6,000 hours of training, including hundreds of underwater somersaults wearing full space gear.
The China National Space Administration is planning 11 launches through the end of next year, including three more crewed missions to deliver two lab modules to expand the 70 tonne station, and supplies and crew members.
China has said it would be open to international collaboration on its space station, although it has yet to give specific details,
Zhou Jianping (周建平), chief designer at the space program, said that “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,” Zhou said.
Beijing in March said that it was also planning to collaborate with Russia to build a separate lunar space station.
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
RSS