A Long March rocket carrying a Chinese astronaut in the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft takes off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, Tuesday, May 30, 2023.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
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Mark Schiefelbein/AP
A Long March rocket carrying a Chinese astronaut in the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft takes off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, Tuesday, May 30, 2023.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
BEIJING — China launched a new three-man crew for its orbiting space station on Tuesday, with the goal of sending astronauts to the moon before the end of the decade.
The Shenzhou 16 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan launch center at the edge of the Gobi desert in northwest China atop a Long March 2-F rocket just after 9:30 a.m. (01:30 GMT) Tuesday.
The crew, including China’s first civilian astronaut, will briefly overlap with the three currently on board the Tiangong station, who will then return to Earth after completing the towing mission. six months long.
A third module was added to the station in November, and space program officials on Monday said they plan to expand it, along with launching a crewed mission to the moon first. year 2030.
China built its own space station after being kicked out of the International Space Station, largely due to US concerns about the close ties between China’s space programs and the People’s Liberation Army. People, the military branch of the ruling Communist Party.
China’s first manned space mission in 2003 made it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the US to send people into space with its own resources.
On this latest mission, payload specialist Gui Haichao, a professor at Beijing’s leading aerospace research institute, will join the mission commander, Major General Jing Haipeng, who was making the flight. fourth into space, and spacecraft engineer Zhu Yangzhu.
The crew will stay on the station for approximately 5 months, during which time they will conduct science experiments and regular maintenance.
The mission goes against the backdrop of competing with the United States to achieve new milestones in space. That is largely friendly, but also reflects stiff competition between them for leadership and influence in the technological, military and diplomatic spheres.
American spending, supply chains, and capabilities are said to offer a significant advantage over China, at least for the time being. However, China has been groundbreaking in some areas, bringing back samples from the lunar surface for the first time in decades and landing a rover on the less-explored far side of the moon. .
Meanwhile, the United States aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, supported by players belonging to the private sector such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.
In addition to their lunar programs, the two countries have also landed separately on Mars, and China plans to follow the United States in landing spacecraft on an asteroid.
