China sent its youngest crew of astronauts into space to the Tiangong space station on Thursday, aiming to strengthen its knowledge of human spaceflight and set foot on the lunar surface by 2030.
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The trio of the Shenzhou-17 mission launched at 11:14 a.m. local time (03:14 GMT) aboard a Longue-Marche 2F rocket from the Jiuquan launch center in the Gobi Desert (northwest), according to the state. Television CCTV.
These include commander Tang Hongbo, born in October 1975, his colleague Tang Shengjie (33 years old) and Jiang Xinlin (35 years old).
The average age of the crew is 38 years, compared to 42 years on the previous Shenzhou-16 mission.
Hundreds of fans waved the Chinese flag and yellow flowers and cheered the three astronauts dressed in white and blue spacesuits.
To the sound of the patriotic song “Ode to the Fatherland,” the astronauts walked among cheering spectators, smiling and waving before boarding a bus to the launch pad.
Dozens of space program employees, many of whom live year-round at the vast Jiuquan site, were present at the launch and then celebrated the success around a Chinese flag.
The spacecraft must dock at the central module of the Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”) station “about six and a half hours” after launch, a spokesman for the Chinese space program, Lin Xiqiang, said on Wednesday.
The astronauts’ stay on Tiangong is expected to last six months.
“Space Dream”
This experience is valuable for the Asian giant, which aims to send a Chinese man to the moon by 2030, the main goal of a space program that has been progressing steadily for several decades.
Tiangong, whose construction was completed last year, has since taken on its final T-shape. It is similar in size to the former Russian Mir station launched into orbit by the Soviet Union, but is much larger and smaller than the International Space Station (ISS).
Also known as CSS (for “Chinese Space Station” in English), it must remain in Earth orbit for at least 10 years.
China was pressured into building its own station in part by the United States’ refusal to allow it to participate in the ISS. An American law passed in 2011 prohibits almost all cooperation between American and Chinese space agencies.
Under Xi Jinping’s presidency, projects related to China’s “space dream” are multiplying.
The Asian giant has been investing billions of euros in its military-run space program for several decades and has largely closed the gap to the Americans and Russians.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003 and its Tiangong space station has been fully operational since the end of 2022.
Robots on Mars
Crews took turns ensuring a continuous presence in the orbiting laboratory, conducting scientific experiments and testing new technologies.
In 2019, a Chinese plane landed on the far side of the moon. Then, in 2021, China put a small robot on the surface of Mars.
The first crew should be sent to the moon by 2030.
The Tiangong Station orbital base is equipped with state-of-the-art scientific equipment, including the “first cold atomic clock system” for space, according to Xinhua News Agency.
Tiangong is expected to operate in low-Earth orbit at an altitude of 400 to 450 kilometers for at least 10 years, giving China a long-term human presence in space.
Beijing does not plan to use Tiangong for cooperation with other countries on the same scale as the International Space Station, but says it is open to possible cooperation, the extent of which is unknown.