Three Chinese astronauts, including the country’s only female space flight engineer, blasted off on a “dream” mission to the Tiangong space station early Wednesday.
The new Tiangong team will conduct experiments in keeping with the space program’s ambitious goal of sending astronauts to the Moon by 2030 and eventually building a lunar base.
The Shenzhou-19 mission lifted off with its trio of space explorers at 4:27 a.m. (2027 GMT Tuesday) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, state news agency Xinhua and state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Congratulations on the successful launch of #shenzhou19 Crewed spacecraft? And good luck to all three astronauts! #spacechina pic.twitter.com/v26V0pAExK
– Cai Run 蔡润 (@AmbCaiRun) 29 October 2024
The crew also includes 34-year-old Wang Haozhe, China’s only female spaceflight engineer, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). She is the third Chinese woman to participate in a crewed mission.
The space agency deemed the launch “completely successful”, Xinhua said.
“Like everyone else, I dream of going to the space station,” Wang said at a media gathering Tuesday, standing behind a podium and high panes of glass with her fellow crew members to shield them from the public. Am.”
“I want to complete each task carefully and protect my home in space,” she said.
“I also want to travel into deep space and look at the stars.”
Led by Cai Xuezhe, the team will return to Earth in late April or early May next year, Lin Ziqiang, CMSA deputy director, said at a separate press event confirming the launch.
Cai, a 48-year-old former Air Force pilot, brings experience from a previous stint on Tiangong as part of the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022.
“After being selected for a new team, taking on a new role, facing new tasks and new challenges, I feel honored to carry my mission with a great responsibility,” Cai said.
The aerospace giant said the crew is now “fully prepared mentally, technically, physically and psychologically” for the missions ahead.
Completing the astronaut lineup is Song Lingdong, a 34-year-old man.
Lin said the crew currently aboard the Tiangong space station is scheduled to return to Earth on Nov. 4 after completing the handover process with the incoming astronauts.
‘Space Dream’
China has accelerated plans to achieve its “space dream” under the leadership of President Xi Jinping.
Its space program was the third to send humans into orbit and has also landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon.
Manned by teams of three astronauts rotating every six months, the Tiangong Space Station is the program’s crown jewel.
Beijing says it is on track to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030, where it intends to build a base on the lunar surface.
During the Shenzhou-19 crew’s time aboard the Tiangong, they will carry out various experiments, including building “bricks” made of components that mimic lunar soil, CCTV reports.
These objects – to be delivered to Tiangong in November by the Tianzhou-8 cargo ship – will be tested to see how they will perform in extreme radiation, gravity, temperatures and other conditions.
Due to the high cost of transporting materials into space, Chinese scientists hope to be able to use lunar soil to build a future base, CCTV reports.
The Shenzhou-19 mission is primarily about “accumulating additional experience,” Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States, told AFP.
Although this particular astronaut swap and the upcoming six-month stint on Tiangong may not be seen as a major success or accomplishment, it is still “very valuable to do,” McDowell said.
China has invested billions of dollars in recent decades into developing an advanced space program comparable to that of the United States and Europe.
In 2019, China successfully landed its Chang’e-4 probe on the far side of the Moon – the first spacecraft ever to do so. In 2021, it landed a small robot on Mars.
Tiangong, whose core module was launched in 2021, is planned to be used for about 10 years.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
