In this photograph launched by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese astronauts from left Cai Xuzhe, Chen Dong and Liu Yang, proper, wave as they attend a press convention for the upcoming Shenzhou-14 mission on the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China on Saturday, June 4, 2022. China is getting ready to launch a brand new three-person mission to finish work on its everlasting orbiting house station, the nation’s China Manned Space Agency mentioned Saturday. Credit: Cai Yang/Xinhua through AP
China is getting ready to launch a brand new three-person mission to finish work on its everlasting orbiting house station, the China Manned Space Agency mentioned Saturday.
The Shenzhou 14 crew will spend six months on the Tiangong station, throughout which they’ll oversee the addition of two laboratory modules to hitch the principle Tianhe dwelling house that was launched in April 2021.
Their spaceship is because of blast off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the sting of the Gobi Desert at 10:44 a.m. Sunday (0244 GMT), the company mentioned. The crewed house flight program’s workhorse Long March 2F rocket will present propulsion.
Commander Chen Dong and fellow astronauts Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe will assemble the three-module construction becoming a member of the prevailing Tianhe with Wentian and Mengtian, resulting from arrive in July and October. Another cargo craft, the Tianzhou-3, stays docked with the station.
The arrival of the brand new modules will “present extra stability, extra highly effective capabilities, extra full gear,” mentioned Chen, 43, who was a member of the Shenzhou 11 mission in 2016.
Liu, 43, can also be an area veteran and was China’s first feminine astronaut to achieve house aboard the Shenzhou 9 mission in 2012. Cai, 46, is making his first house journey.
China’s house program launched its first astronaut into orbit in 2003, making it solely the third nation to take action by itself after the previous Soviet Union and the U.S.
It has landed robotic rovers on the moon and positioned one on Mars final 12 months. China has additionally returned lunar samples and officers have mentioned a doable crewed mission to the moon.
China’s house program is run by the ruling Communist Party’s army wing, the People’s Liberation Army, prompting the U.S. to exclude it from the International Space Station.
Chen, Liu and Cai will probably be joined on the finish of their mission for 3 to 5 days by the crew of the upcoming Shenzhou 15, marking the primary time the station may have had six individuals aboard.
Supplies launched to China’s new house station for subsequent crew
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China plans to finish house station with newest mission (2022, June 4)
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