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China's Shenzhou-13 spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts docked Saturday at its space station, kicking off a record-setting six-month stay as the country mov𝐆es toward completing the new orbiting outpost.
The spacecraft was launched by a Long March-2F rocket at 12:23 am Saturday and docked with the Tianhe core module of the Ti꧒angong space station at 6:56 am, approximately six and a half hours later.
The two men ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚand one woman are the second crew to move into the space station, which was launched last 💮April. The first crew stayed three months.
The new crew includes two v𝓀eterans of space travel. Zhai Z🌞higang, 55, and Wang Yaping, 41, and Ye Guangfu, 41, who is making his first trip to space.
They were seen off by a military band an💎d supporters singing “Ode to the Motherland,” underscoring the weight of national pride invested in the spac༺e programme, which has advanced rapidly in recent years.
The crew will do three spacewalks to install equipment in preparation for expanding the station💞; assess living conditions in the Tianhe module and conduct experiments in space medicine and other fields.
China's mil꧒itary-run space programme plans to send multiple crews to the station over the next two yearꦅs to make it fully functional.
When completed with the add🌌ition of two more sections — named Mengtian and Wentian — the station will weigh about 66 tons, much smaller than the International Space Station, which launched its first modul🔯e in 1998 and weighs around 450 tons.
Two more Chinese modules are due to be launched be🔴fore the end of nexꩵt year during the stay of the yet-to-be-named Shenzhou-14 crew.
China's Foreign Ministry on Friday renewed its commitment to cooperation with othe𒐪r nations in the peaceful use of space.
Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said sending humans into space was a “common cause of mankind.” China would “continue to extend the depth and breadth of international coꦏoperation and exchanges” in crewed spaceflight and “make positive contributions to the exploration of꧑ the mysteries of the universe,” he said.
China was excluded from the International Space Stati🤪on largely due to US objections over the Chinese programme's secretive nature and close military ties, prompting it to launch two experimental modules before starting on the permanent station.
US law requires congressional approval for contact between the American and♎ C♊hinese space programmes, but China is cooperating with space experts from other countries including France, Sweden, Russia and Italy. Chinese officials have said they look forward to hosting astronauts from other countries aboard the space station once it becomes fully functional.
China has launched seven crewed missions with a total of 14 astrona♚uts ꩲaboard — two have flown twice — since 2003, when it became only the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a person in space on its own.
China ha꧒s also expanded its work on lunar and Mars exploration, including land✤ing a rover on the little-explored far side of the Moon and returning lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s.
This year, China also landed its Tianwen-1 space probe on Mars, whose accompanying Zhurong rover has been expl▨oring for evidence 🍸of life on the red planet.
Other Chinese space programmes call for collecting soil from an asteroid and bringi🦄ng back additional lunar samp𒆙les. China has also expressed an aspiration to land people on the moon and possibly build a scientific base there, although no timeline has been proposed for such projects. A highly secretive space plane is also reportedly under development. (AP)
