China, first crew in the new space station: it is the longest mission

by time news

I first astronauts for the new Chinese space station they left for the longest manned mission of the country to date, a key step for Beijing to present itself as a great space power.

The three are aboard a Long March-2F rocket for Tiangong station, where they will spend three months, in a blast-off broadcast live on state TV. The take-off took place at 9:22 am from the Jiuquan launch center in northwest China’s Gobi desert, with the rocket lifting up in clouds of smoke against a blue sky. In a pre-launch ceremony, the three astronauts already wearing their spacesuits greeted a crowd of supporters including family members and space station personnel. And the first manned Chinese mission in nearly five years.

The launch represents a matter of enormous prestige in China as Beijing prepares to score the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party in power on 1 July with a massive propaganda campaign. To prepare for the mission, the crew underwent more than 6,000 hours of training.

The first three Chinese astronauts launched into orbit for what is the longest space mission so far conducted by Beijing left in the night. The three astronauts, Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming e Tang Hongbo, will spend three months aboard the Tianhe module about 380 kilometers above the Earth. The take-off of the Shenzhou-12 capsule atop the Long March 2F rocket took place in the Gobi desert. The goal of the Shenzhou-12 mission is to put the 22.5-ton Tianhe module into service.

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