“New step” in China’s space conquest: three astronauts joined the “celestial palace“, the station that Beijing is building in orbit and which should now be permanently occupied.
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The spacecraft for their Shenzhou-14 mission was powered by a Long March 2F rocket, which took off at 10:44 a.m. local time (0244 GMT) from the Jiuquan launch center in the Gobi desert (northwest). Public broadcaster CCTV broadcast images of the launch live. After about “seven hour flightthe spacecraft first docked with the space station, CCTV said. Then around 8:50 p.m. in Beijing (12:50 p.m. GMT), the three astronauts entered the main module of the station, according to the space agency responsible for manned flights (CMSA). Like the previous crew of the Shenzhou-13 mission, which returned in mid-April, the three astronauts, including a woman, are expected to stay on the space station for around six months.
Named in Chinese Tiangong (“celestial palace) but also known by its acronym CSS (for “chinese space stationin English), it should be fully operational by the end of the year. The crew includes Liu Yang, 43, who was the first Chinese woman in space (2012). She is accompanied by Chen Dong (43) and Cai Xuzhe (46), who is making her first flight into space after 12 years of preparation. Main challenge for the crew of Shenzhou-14: receiving and installing two new laboratory modules, which will be docked at the station. They will be launched from Earth in July and October. These will considerably increase the volume and scale of the space station.
Relay in orbit
“After successfully docking the modules, the crew will need to use a robotic arm to grab them, undocking them, rotating them 90 degrees and docking them at another port“Explains Chen Lan, analyst of the site Go Taikonauts.com, specialized in the Chinese space program. These crucial procedures will need to be performed in coordination with engineers on Earth. “China has never carried out such a complex operation before, which has only taken place on Mir and the International Space Station (ISS). It will be a real test for the crew and the equipment“Says Chen Lan.
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Once these laboratory modules have been installed, the general structure of the station will have its final appearance, in the shape of a T. It will then be similar in size to the former Russian-Soviet Mir station. Its lifespan should be at least 10 years, even 15 years. The Shenzhou-14 crew will also perform spacewalks, conduct a series of experiments and maintain Tiangong. New to this mission: for the first time, two Chinese crews will pass the baton in orbit in the station. Towards the end of their stay, before returning to Earth, the three Shenzhou-14 astronauts will in fact spend a few days in orbit with their three colleagues from the future Shenzhou-15 mission.
Permanent occupation
“With Shenzhou-14, Chinese manned spaceflight takes a new step” with “the beginning of the permanent occupation of the station“, told AFP Jonathan McDowell, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in the United States. “In other words, from now on, the goal is to always have Chinese astronauts in space.“. China has been pushed to build its own station due to its exclusion from the ISS, as the United States prohibits Nasa from working with Beijing. The Asian giant has been investing billions of euros in its space program for several decades.
Read the fileChina facing the world
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003. Since then, it has achieved some notable feats, especially in recent years. At the beginning of 2019, it placed a machine on the far side of the Moon, a world first. In 2020, it brought back samples from the Moon and finalized Beidou, its satellite navigation system, a competitor to the American GPS. In 2021, it landed a small robot on Mars and plans to send men to the Moon by 2030. In the longer term, China plans to offer space tourism, Zhou Jianping said in March, the conductor of the Chinese manned program.