China launches second crewed mission to build space station

Jiuquan, Oct. 16 (BNA): China on Saturday launched a rocket carrying three astronauts, including a woman, into the base unit of a future space station where they will live and work for six months, the longest time ever in orbit for six months. Chinese astronauts.

A Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft, which means sacred ship in Chinese, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest Gansu Province at 12:23 a.m. Beijing time (1623 GMT Friday), Reuters reported. .

China began construction of the space station in April with the launch of Tianhe – the first and largest of the station’s three modules. Slightly larger than a city bus, Tianhe will be the living quarters for the completed space station.

Shenzhou-13 is the second of four manned missions necessary to complete the space station by the end of 2022. During the first manned mission that ended in September, three other astronauts stayed in Tianhe for 90 days.

In the latest mission, astronauts will test key technologies and robots in Tianhe needed to assemble the space station, verify onboard life support systems and conduct a range of science experiments.

The mission leader is Zhai Zhigang, 55, from the first batch of trained astronauts in China in the late 1990s.

Born to a rural family of six, Chai carried out China’s first spacewalk in 2008. Shenzhou-13 was his second spacewalk.

“The most difficult task will be the long-term stay in orbit for six months,” Chai said at a news conference on Thursday. “It will impose higher demands (on us) both physically and psychologically.”

He was accompanied by Chai Wang Yaping, 41, and Ye Guangfu, 41.

Wang, a mother of a five-year-old, was born into a rural family like Chai.

The former Air Force pilot, known among colleagues for her tenacity, first flew into space in 2013, the Tiangong-1, a space laboratory prototype.

China has so far sent two astronauts into space. The first was Liu Yang, in 2012.

Shenzhou-13 was the third astronaut Yi’s first space mission.

After the Shenzhou-13 crew returns to Earth in April next year, China will deploy six more missions, including the delivery of the second and third space station modules and two final manned missions.

China, which is prohibited by US law from working with NASA and thus on the International Space Station (ISS), has spent the past decade developing technologies to build its own station.

With the International Space Station ready to retire in a few years, the Chinese space station will become the only one in Earth orbit.

China’s space program has come a long way since late leader Mao Zedong lamented that the country could not even launch a potato into space.

China became the third country to deploy a man into space with its own rocket, in October 2003, after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

NS