China Launches 3 Astronauts to China Space Station
Three Astronauts Have Taken Off Successfully for The Longest Spaceflight Human Mission by China
China has successfully been able to launch three of its astronauts into the outer space orbit for the initiation of occupation of the newly developed China space station. The three individuals Tang Hongbo, Liu Boming, and Nie Haisheng have been scheduled to spend around three upcoming months being on board the Tianhe module which is about 380 kilometers above the planet Earth.
This would mark as the longest human crew outer space mission by China to date and the first one in nearly about five years. The space crew has successfully been able to dock their shuttle with the China space station, which took them around just a little over seven hours duration after being launched off from the Earth. The moment the Shenzhou-12 capsule came in contact and locked onto the China space station; a massive round of applause was heard throughout the mission control center located in China.
China’s Shenzhou-12 capsule has taken off from atop the Long March 2F rocket from within China on Thursday. The time of liftoff was at 0922 local times and had launched from the Jiuquan satellite launch center, which is located in the Gobi Desert towards the China space station.
This recent liftoff and succeeding space mission to the China space station is a demonstration of the growing assurance and capability of China in the past recent few years in the space domain.
In the last six months, China has been able to return back sample of soil and rock to the Earth, which was taken from the surface of the Moon, and has been able to land a six-wheeled robotic device on the exterior of Mars. Both of these tasks are of extreme complexity and require challenging endeavors.
Chinese crew’s mission in space
The primary objective which has been given to Commander Nie Haisheng along with his team members that are aboard the Shenzhou-12 space mission is to commandeer and bring into service the 22.5 tones Tianhe module.
Ahead of starting his mission, Commander Nie said that he has a lot of expectations from this mission to the China space station. He also said that they are required to set a new home while in space and would be testing various new technologies. The mission that the team needs to do in space is challenging and tough, although he believes that all three of them would be able to achieve the given task by working together closely, and being thorough along with doing the operations accurately, thorough which they would be easily able to overcome the challenges.
The Tianhe module is 16.6 meters long and 4.2 meters wide, was launched by China in the month of April this year. This is the first and one of the core components which would be added to the 70 tones orbiting outpost of China space station, which would be comprising of living quarters, scientific laboratories, and would even have a Hubble telescope which would be used to view the cosmos.
The multiple elements of the space station are to be launched into orbit in various turns, which would be completed over the course of a coming couple of years. The process of construction of the China space station will approximately be accomplished by having regular deliveries of cargos into outer space along with multiple crew expeditions.
Astronaut’s identities
The authorities of China have kept the identities of the individuals that have been selected to go for the outer space mission for the China space station under wraps until Wednesday, during which they made them public during a press conference conducted sometime before the takeoff.
Nie Haisheng, aged 56, a fighter pilot, is said to be the oldest astronaut by China to go to outer space. He was also a veteran on two previously conducted space flights, one of which was a 15-day visit in the year 2013 to the prototype of China space station, named Tiangong-1. Since then, the prototype has been deorbited.
Mr. Nei’s crewmates, Tang Hongbo, aged 45, and Liu Boming, aged 54, also have the background of being in the air force of the country. The earlier experience of spaceflight by Liu was on the Shenzhou-7 mission in the year 2008 that also saw him participating in the first-ever spacewalk by China.