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WATCH: First astronauts arrive at China’s new orbital space station
China has said it would be open to international collaboration on its Tianhe space station, although it has yet to give specific details.
Astronauts Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng, and Liu Boming depart for the launch site of the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on June 17, 2021. Photo: Getty Images/VCG
Astronauts docked at Tianhe space station
Around seven hours after lift-off, space officials confirmed that the craft had docked with Tianhe, the core module of the country’s new space station.
The Shenzhou-12 craft has “successfully docked with the forward port of the core module” of the Tiangong station, said the China Manned Space Agency, as state TV showed live footage.
At a ceremony before blast-off, the three astronauts, already wearing their space suits, greeted a crowd of supporters and space workers, who sang the patriotic song “Without the Chinese Communist Party, there would be no new China”.
The mission’s commander is Nie Haisheng, a decorated air force pilot in the People’s Liberation Army who has already participated in two space missions.
The two other members are also members of the military.
Space life
The Tianhe module of the space station has separate living spaces for each of the astronauts, a “space treadmill” and bike for exercise, and a communication centre for emails and video calls with ground control.
It is China’s first crewed mission in nearly five years.
Huang Weifen of the China Manned Space Program said the astronauts will perform two spacewalks during the mission, both lasting around six or seven hours.
She also said the trio will wear newly-developed spacewalk suits.
The launch represents a matter of huge prestige in China, as Beijing prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party on July 1 with a massive propaganda campaign.
To prepare for the mission, the crew underwent more than 6,000 hours of training, including hundreds of underwater somersaults in full space gear.
Watch: Astronauts on Tianhe space station
The Chinese space agency is planning a total of 11 launches through to the end of next year, including three more manned missions that will deliver two lab modules to expand the 70-tonne station, along with supplies and crew members.
China’s space ambitions have been fuelled in part by a US ban on its astronauts on the International Space Station, a collaboration between the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan.
It is due for retirement after 2024, even though NASA has said it could potentially remain functional beyond 2028.
Tiangong will be much smaller than the ISS, and is expected to have a lifespan of at least 10 years.
Watch: China’s historic moment
China has said it would be open to international collaboration on its space station although it has yet to give specific details.
Zhou Jianping, chief designer for the space programme, said “foreign astronauts are certainly going to enter the Chinese space station one day”.
“There are a number of countries that have expressed a desire to do that and we will be open to that in future,” he said.
Beijing said in March it was also planning to build a separate lunar space station with Russia, and this week the two countries issued a “roadmap” for potential collaboration opportunities.
Ludovic Ehret © Agence France-Presse
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