On Sunday, China will launch a spaceship carrying three astronauts to the core module of China’s unfinished space station, where they will work and dwell for six months as building progresses.
A Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the northwestern province of Gansu on Sunday at 10:44 a.m. local time (0244 GMT), a China Manned Space Agency official said at a press conference on Saturday.
On board Shenzhou, which means “Divine Vessel” in Chinese, mission commander Chen Dong will be joined by Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe.
‘All launch preparations are practically complete,’ said Lin Xiqiang, an agency official.
Shenzhou-14 will be the third of four crewed flights, and the seventh of 11 missions required to complete the space station by the end of the year.
With the launch of Tianhe, the first and largest of the station’s three modules, China began construction of its three-module space station in April 2021.
Tianhe, which is barely larger than a metro bus, will house visiting astronauts after the T-shaped space station is completed.
Following Shenzhou-14, the next two modules, Wentian and Mengtian, will be launched in July and October, respectively.
Wentian will have a robotic arm, an airlock cabin for visits outside the station, and living accommodations for three extra astronauts during crew rotations.
The Shenzhou-14 crew will assist with the installation of Wentian and Mengtian, as well as perform functional testing on both modules.
The space station will be built to last a decade. It will be somewhat heavier than Russia’s decommissioned Mir and around 20% the mass of the International Space Station.
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