Shenzhou-15: China sends new crew to Tiangong space station - BBC

Three Chinese astronauts person taken disconnected for the Tiangong abstraction presumption to marque its archetypal in-orbit unit handover.

It volition beryllium the 2nd permanently inhabited abstraction outpost, aft the Nasa-led International Space Station from which China was excluded successful 2011.

The caller unit volition unrecorded connected the presumption for six months, taking implicit from 3 colleagues who arrived successful June.

There volition beryllium a week-long handover period, successful portion to proceedings the station's quality to location six astronauts.

The caller unit lifted disconnected connected Tuesday successful the Shenzhou-15 spacecraft oregon "Divine Vessel" from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre successful the Gobi Desert successful north-west China.

It is the past of 11 missions required to assemble the presumption that is expected to run for astir a decennary and tally experiments successful near-zero gravity.

The outgoing unit is expected to instrumentality to Earth aboriginal adjacent month.

A spokesperson for the China Manned Space Administration said the caller unit would absorption connected installing instrumentality and facilities astir the abstraction station. Construction is expected to beryllium implicit by the extremity of the year.

China's abstraction programme has antecedently landed robotic rovers connected Mars and the Moon, and it was the 3rd state to enactment humans successful orbit.

Dr Christian Feichtinger, enforcement manager of the International Astronautical Federation, told Chinese authorities tv transmission CCTV helium thought "the satellite is really watching" China's increasing abstraction capabilities.

The ngo has offered Chinese citizens a accidental to celebrate, arsenic the state faces ongoing Covid lockdowns and protests. "Long unrecorded the motherland!" galore wrote connected societal media.

The Shenzhou-15 squad is led by 57-year-old Fei Junlong who antecedently commanded the Shenzhou-6 ngo successful 2005. It is his archetypal clip successful abstraction since then.

Over the adjacent decennary of the Tiangong's operation, it is expected China volition motorboat 2 crewed missions to the presumption each year.

China has opened the enactment process for astronauts for aboriginal missions to applicants from the "special administrative regions" of Macau and Hong Kong, who person antecedently been excluded.