China launches astronauts to complete space station work

Beijing, Nov 30: China launched a rocket on Tuesday carrying three astronauts to complete the construction of the country's permanent space station.

Upon arrival, the crew of the Shenzhou-15 will overlap for around five days with the three astronauts currently aboard the Tiangong station, known as the "Heavenly Palace in the sky." Those three will then return to Earth after completing a six-month mission.

During the Shenzhou-15 mission, which is also set to last six months, the latest trio will work on expanding the facility to its maximum capacity of six crew members.

Known as taikonauts rather than astronauts in China, the crew will dock at the almost-finished Tiangong space station sometime on Wednesday.

Who are the crew?

The trio blasted off Tuesday atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China at 11:08 p.m. local time.

The Shenzhou-15 mission, led by Fei Junlong and crewed by Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu, will be the last in the orbiting space station's construction phase, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

Fei, 57, hails from China's first batch of astronaut trainees from the late 1990s. His last visit to space was 17 years ago when he led China's second-ever crewed spaceflight. Deng and Zhang, meanwhile, are on their inaugural missions.

Space plans

China, which has invested billions in its space program, wants to operate its orbiting station for the next decade.

The country is already coordinating an unmanned vehicle on Mars while also undertaking several exploratory missions to the moon.

China is also working on a reusable spacecraft that could be in operation within three years.

Over the next five years, rock samples from the lunar's surface in its polar regions will be brought back to Earth. Proposals over a research station on the moon, in cooperation with Russia, are also under consideration.

Source: DW