- Shenzhou-15 is the last of 11 missions under construction of the space station since April 2021
- The Shenzhou-15 crew takes over the Shenzhou-14 astronauts on the space station
- The Chinese space station will be the second permanently inhabited outpost after the NASA-led ISS
BEIJING, Nov 30 (Portal) – Three Chinese astronauts arrived at China’s space station on Wednesday to conduct the first in-orbit crew rotation in China’s space history, launching operations of the second inhabited outpost in low-Earth orbit after that by the NASA-run International Space Station.
The Shenzhou-15 or “Divine Vessel” spacecraft and its three passengers lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Tuesday at 23:08 (1508 GMT) in sub-freezing temperatures in the Gobi desert in the desert Northwest China, according to state television.
Shenzhou-15 was the last of 11 missions, including three previous manned missions needed to assemble the “Celestial Palace,” as the multi-module station is called in Chinese. The first mission was launched in April 2021.
The spacecraft docked at the station more than six hours after launch, and the three Shenzhou-15 astronauts were greeted with warm hugs from the previous Shenzhou crew from which they took over.
The Shenzhou-14 crew, who arrived in early June, will return to Earth after a week-long handover that will demonstrate the station’s ability to temporarily accommodate six astronauts, another record for China’s space program.
The Shenzhou-15 mission offered the nation a rare moment to celebrate at a time of widespread discontent over China’s zero-COVID policy as its economy cools amid uncertainties at home and abroad.
“Long live the fatherland!” Many Chinese netizens wrote on social media.
The Celestial Palace was the culmination of nearly two decades of Chinese manned space missions. China’s manned spaceflights began in 2003 when a former fighter pilot, Yang Liwei, was sent into orbit in a small bronze-colored capsule, the Shenzhou-5, becoming China’s first human in space and an instant hero, hailed by millions back home became.
The space station has also been a symbol of China’s growing influence and confidence in its space efforts, and a challenger to the United States in this area, having been isolated from the NASA-run ISS and barred by US law from any cooperation, direct or indirect was. with the US space agency.
Astronauts Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu attend a farewell ceremony ahead of the Shenzhou-15 spaceflight mission to build China’s space station at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center near Jiuquan, Gansu province, China, 29 September 2022. cnsphoto via Portal
FUTURE “TAIKONAUTS”
The leader of the Shenzhou-15 mission was Fei Junlong, 57, who came from China’s first batch of astronaut trainees in the late 1990s. His last visit to space was 17 years ago as the commander of China’s second-ever human spaceflight.
Fei was flanked by Deng Qingming, 56, who had trained as an astronaut for 24 years but had never been selected for a mission until Shenzhou-15. They were joined by former Air Force pilot Zhang Lu, 46, also a space debutant.
The astronauts will live and work at the T-shaped outpost for six months.
The next batch of “taikonauts,” coined from the Chinese word for space, who will board the station in 2023, will be selected from the third generation of astronauts with science backgrounds. The first and second groups of astronauts in the 1990s and 2000s were all former Air Force pilots.
China has started the selection process for the fourth group, seeking candidates with doctorates in disciplines ranging from biology, physics and chemistry to biomedical engineering and astronomy.
The selection process was also opened to applicants from Hong Kong and Macau for the first time.
During the space station’s operations for the next decade, China is expected to launch two manned missions to the orbiting outpost each year.
Resident astronauts are expected to conduct more than 1,000 science experiments — from studying how plants adapt to space to how fluids behave in microgravity.
Though still in its infancy compared to NASA’s technologies and expertise, China’s space program has come a long way since the mid-20th century, when the country’s late leader Mao Zedong lamented that China didn’t even put a potato in the orbit.
Reporting by Ryan Woo and Liangping Gao; Edited by Alison Williams, Jonathan Oatis and Gerry Doyle
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