Space: China sends more astronauts to the “Tiangong” space station
space travel
China sends more astronauts to the Tiangong space station
Deng Qingming, one of the three astronauts scheduled to take part in the space mission to the Tiangong space station. photo
© Uncredited/XinHua/dpa
China’s “heavenly palace” is getting reinforcements: Three more astronauts are to initially support the current crew in their ambitious goals on the moon and Mars and later replace them.
China has announced the next manned flight to its space station “Tiangong” (Heaven’s Palace). As the space agency announced on Monday, three astronauts are to set off into space on Tuesday evening at 11:08 p.m. (4:08 p.m. CET). The spaceship “Shenzhou 15” (Magic Ship) is then to take off from the Jiuquan Cosmodrome in the north-east of the country. The crew consists of astronauts Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu.
They are to join their colleagues Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe in the just-completed space station Life. The current crew is then scheduled to return to Earth in December. The new crew will stay in the space station for around six months. China intends to operate its “heavenly palace” for around ten years.
For its ambitious goals, the People’s Republic has invested billions in the space program, which is managed by the military. China is already successfully operating a reconnaissance vehicle on Mars. The country has rocks from moon and be the first nation to land a spaceship on the opposite side of the moon.
And China is pursuing other ambitious goals in space. According to experts, a reusable spaceship may be used by 2025. Rock samples from the polar regions of the moon are to be brought to earth over the next five years. Plans for a research station on the moon are also being worked out with Russia.
