Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Three Chinese men Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, will spend three months in space as part of the China’s longest crewed space mission till now.
China launched three astronauts into orbit on Thursday to begin occupation of the country’s new space station. These men will spend three months aboard the Tianhe module some 380km (236 miles) above the earth.
It is said to be the China’s longest crewed space mission till now and the first in nearly five years., their Shenzhou-12 capsule successfully took off atop its Long March 2F rocket.
Lift-off from the Jiuquan satellite launch centre in the Gobi desert was at 09:22 Beijing time (01:22 GMT). The launch and subsequent mission are another demonstration of China’s growing confidence and capability in the space domain.
In the past six months, the country has returned rock and soil samples to Earth from the surface of the Moon, and landed a six-wheeled robot on Mars – both highly complex and challenging endeavours.
The primary objective for Commander Nie Haishen and his team on the Shenzhou-12 mission is to bring the 22.5-tonne Tianhe module into service. “I have a lot of expectations,” Nie told just before the launch.
“We need to set up our new home in space and test a series of new technologies. So, the mission is tough and challenging,” he said. This 16.6m-long, 4.2m-wide Tianhe cylinder was launched in April.
It is the first and core component in what will eventually be a near 70-tonne orbiting outpost, comprising living quarters, science labs and even a Hubble-class telescope to view the cosmos. President Xi Jinping has supported the country’s space endeavours.
