China plans to complete space station with latest mission

BEIJING – China is planning to start a new a few-man or woman mission to full perform on its permanent orbiting place station, the China Manned Space Agency claimed Saturday.

The Shenzhou 14 crew will devote six months on the Tiangong station, in the course of which they will oversee the addition of two laboratory modules to be a part of the primary Tianhe living place that was introduced in April 2021.

Their spaceship is thanks to blast off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert at 10:44 a.m. Sunday (0244 GMT), the agency claimed. The crewed place flight program’s workhorse Long March 2F rocket will present propulsion.

Commander Chen Dong and fellow astronauts Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe will assemble the three-module framework signing up for the current Tianhe with Wentian and Mengtian, because of to get there in July and October. A further cargo craft, the Tianzhou-3, remains docked with the station.

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The arrival of the new modules will “provide much more balance, a lot more effective functions, additional finish equipment,” reported Chen, 43, who was a member of the Shenzhou 11 mission in 2016.

Liu, 43, is also a area veteran and was China’s to start with female astronaut to arrive at area aboard the Shenzhou 9 mission in 2012. Cai, 46, is building his 1st house journey.

China’s place method introduced its very first astronaut into orbit in 2003, creating it only the third place to do so on its possess following the previous Soviet Union and the U.S.

It has landed robot rovers on the moon and positioned one particular on Mars last 12 months. China has also returned lunar samples and officials have reviewed a feasible crewed mission to the moon.

China’s house software is operate by the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, prompting the U.S. to exclude it from the International Room Station.

Chen, Liu and Cai will be joined at the finish of their mission for a few to five days by the crew of the impending Shenzhou 15, marking the initially time the station will have had 6 individuals aboard.