Chinese astronauts embark on a historic voyage to the space station.
The first in-orbit crew rotation in Chinese space history took place on Wednesday as three Chinese astronauts arrived at China’s space station, beginning the functioning of the country’s second inhabited outpost in low-Earth orbit after the NASA-led International Space Station.
According to state television, the spacecraft Shenzhou-15, or ‘Divine Vessel,’ and its three passengers launched at 11:08 p.m. (1508 GMT) on Tuesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert in northwest China on a Long March-2F rocket.
The ‘Celestial Palace,’ as the multi-module station is known in Chinese, required to be assembled over the course of 11 missions, the final of which, Shenzhou-15, included three crewed missions. In April 2021, the initial mission was launched.
More than six hours after launch, the spacecraft docked with the station, and the three Shenzhou-15 astronauts were welcomed by the Shenzhou crew they were replacing with warm hugs.
After a one-week handover, the Shenzhou-14 crew, who arrived in early June, will return to Earth and test the station’s capacity to house six astronauts for a limited time—another first for China’s space program.
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