A Lengthy March rocket with a Shenzhou-19 spacecraft atop takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart in Jiuquan, northwestern China within the early hours of Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024.
Ng Han Guan/AP/AP
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Ng Han Guan/AP/AP
JIUQUAN, China — China declared a “full success” after it launched a brand new three-person crew to its orbiting area station early Wednesday because the nation seeks to develop its exploration of outer area with missions to the moon and past.
The Shenzhou-19 spaceship carrying the trio blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart in northwest China at 4:27 a.m. native time atop a Lengthy March-2F rocket, the spine of China’s crewed area missions.
“The crew situation is nice and the launch has been profitable,” the state broadcaster China Central Tv introduced.
China constructed its personal area station after being excluded from the Worldwide Area Station, primarily due to U.S. issues over the Individuals’s Liberation Military, the Chinese language Communist Occasion’s army arm’s total management over the area program. China’s moon program is a part of a rising rivalry with the U.S. and others, together with Japan and India.
The workforce of two males and one lady will exchange the astronauts who’ve lived on the Tiangong area station for the final six months. They’re anticipated to remain till April or Could of subsequent yr.
The brand new mission commander, Cai Xuzhe, went to area within the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022, whereas the opposite two, Music Lingdong and Wang Haoze, are first-time area vacationers, born within the Nineties.
Music was an air power pilot and Wang an engineer with the China Aerospace Science and Know-how Company. Wang would be the crew’s payload specialist and the third Chinese language lady aboard a crewed mission.
In addition to placing an area station into orbit, the Chinese language area company has landed an explorer on Mars. It goals to place an individual on the moon earlier than 2030, which might make China the second nation after the US to take action. It additionally plans to construct a analysis station on the moon and has already transferred rock and soil samples from the little-explored far facet of the moon in a worldwide first.
The U.S. nonetheless leads in area exploration and plans to land astronauts on the moon for the primary time in additional than 50 years, although NASA pushed the goal date again to 2026 earlier this yr.
The brand new crew will carry out spacewalks and set up new gear to guard the station from area particles, a few of which was created by China.
In line with NASA, massive items of particles have been created by “satellite tv for pc explosions and collisions.” China’s firing of a rocket to destroy a redundant climate satellite tv for pc in 2007 and the “unintended collision of American and Russian communications satellites in 2009 vastly elevated the quantity of enormous particles in orbit,” it mentioned.
China’s area authorities say they’ve measures in place in case their astronauts must return to Earth earlier.
China launched its first crewed mission in 2003, turning into solely the third nation to take action after the previous Soviet Union and the US. The area program is a supply of huge nationwide satisfaction and an indicator of China’s technological advances over the previous twenty years.
