Veteran taikonaut, 2 rookies launched to Chinese space station

Three Chinese taikonauts blasted disconnected from nan Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center successful northwest China connected Thursday and group disconnected aft nan the Tiangong abstraction station to switch three long-duration unit members who are closing retired a six-month enactment successful space.

With seasoned Ye Guangfu, 43, astatine nan controls of nan Shenzhou 18 spacecraft, flanked by rookies Li Cong, 34, and Li Guangsu, 36, nan Long March 2F rocket roared to life astatine 8:59 a.m. EDT (8:59 p.m. Beijing time) and smoothly climbed distant connected a southwesterly trajectory matching nan station's orbit.

A Long March 2F rocket blasts disconnected from nan Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center successful northwest China carrying 3 Taikonauts connected a formation to nan Tiangong abstraction station. CCTV

Ye and his crewmates past monitored an automated 6.5-hour rendezvous pinch nan Tiangong position and docked astatine 3:32 p.m. EDT, joining Shenzhou-17 commandant Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin aboard nan orbital outpost.

"My 2 unit members and I, arsenic good arsenic nan full abstraction ngo team, are afloat prepared and assured (in our ability) to complete this abstraction formation mission," Ye said successful translated remarks during a news convention Wednesday.

Tang and his crewmates scheme to depart and return to Earth pinch landing successful nan Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region connected April 30, closing retired a six-month enactment successful orbit that began pinch motorboat connected Oct. 25.

The Shenzhou 18 formation is China's seventh piloted mission to nan abstraction station and its 5th since around-the-clock staffing began successful June 2022. The launching was carried unrecorded connected Chinese television, providing spectacular shots of nan rocket's climb to abstraction and interior views of nan taikonauts arsenic they monitored cockpit displays.

Ye is nan only abstraction seasoned connected nan crew, completing a 182-day circuit of work successful 2021-22 arsenic portion of nan Shenzhou 13 mission. Li Cong and Li Guangsu are rookies making their first flight.

As a first-time flyer, Li Guangsu said he was looking guardant to walking 7.9 meters per 2nd — astir 17,500 mph — and "cannot wait" to acquisition weightlessness.

The Shenzhou 18 unit greeting journalists astatine a pre-launch news convention Wednesday. Left to right: Li Cong, commandant Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu. Guangfu is simply a abstraction veteran, logging 182 days successful orbit during a enactment aboard nan Tiangong abstraction position successful 2021-22. His 2 crewmates are making their first flight. China Manned Space Agency

"There are nary wings, but I still tin fly!" he said astatine nan accepted pre-flight news conference. "What a awesome acquisition for me. I besides would for illustration to return this opportunity to spot nan bluish planet, to person a bully look astatine nan marvelous scenery of our motherland."

During their enactment successful space, Ye and institution will transportation retired a afloat slate of much than 90 technological investigation projects on pinch 2 to 3 spacewalks to instal outer experiments, micrometeoroid shielding and different equipment.

Lin Xiqiang, lawman head of nan China Manned Space Agency, said nan unit besides will participate successful ongoing subject acquisition outreach and unload nan Tianzhou-8 cargo vessel earlier their Shenzhou 19 replacements get successful October.

The Chinese abstraction position is made up of three ample modules connected successful a T-shaped configuration. The Tianhe halfway module, launched successful April 2021, is nan centerpiece of nan complex, providing unit quarters, life support systems, communications, spacecraft controls, an airlock and aggregate docking ports.

Two different ample modules — Wentian and Mengtian — were attached to Tianhe successful 2022. The position has a wide of astir 100 tons.

The 450-ton International Space Station is made up of much than a twelve pressurized modules provided by nan United States, Russia, nan European Space Agency and Japan. Construction began successful 1998 and nan laboratory has been permanently staffed by rotating astronaut-cosmonaut crews since 2000.

The Shenzhou 18 unit (left) monitors cockpit displays during nan climb to abstraction while nan Shenzhou 17 unit they are replacing watches nan ascent from nan Tiangong abstraction station. CCTV

The Tiangong position has been permanently staffed since June 2022 pinch nan presence of nan Shenzhou 14 crew. While smaller than nan ISS, nan Chinese laboratory is newer and equipped pinch state-of-the-art equipment, computers and instrumentation.

NASA and its partners scheme to discontinue nan ISS successful 2030, remotely driving it to a destructive re-entry successful nan ambiance supra nan southbound Pacific Ocean, good distant from shipping lanes and populated areas. That will time off Tiangong arsenic nan only government-operated abstraction position successful low-Earth orbit.

NASA is counting connected commercialized abstraction stations operated by backstage companies to supply investigation opportunities successful Earth orbit successful nan 2030s while nan U.S. agency pursues a return to nan moon later this decade pinch nan agency's Artemis program.

China plans to motorboat its ain taikonauts to nan satellite starting successful 2030, fueling what NASA Administrator Bill Nelson calls a caller superpower abstraction race.

"It is simply a fact: We're successful a abstraction race," he told Politico successful an question and reply published past year. "And it is existent that we amended watch retired that they don't get to a spot connected nan satellite nether nan guise of technological research. And it is not beyond nan realm of anticipation that they say, 'keep out, we're here, this is our territory.'"

The CGTN news agency, quoting Lin, said nan Long March-10 satellite rocket, nan Mengzhou (Dream Vessel) unit carrier spacecraft and nan Lanyue (Embracing nan Moon) lunar lander person completed creation reviews and prototypes are presently being tested.

NASA plans its first piloted Artemis ngo precocious adjacent year, launching 3 NASA astronauts and a Canadian flyer connected a looping voyage astir nan satellite and backmost to trial nan agency's Orion unit carrier ship.

The Long March 2F rocket and Shenzhou 18 spacecraft awaiting motorboat astatine nan Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center successful northwest China. CCTV

If each goes well, NASA plans to onshore astronauts adjacent nan moon's southbound rod successful nan 2026-27 timeframe. But that will dangle connected SpaceX perfecting its Starship satellite lander and Super Heavy booster.

China is successful nan process of selecting a 4th batch of taikonauts that Lin said will participate successful abstraction position activities arsenic good arsenic upcoming satellite missions.

He repeated comments he made earlier nan Shenzhou 17 launch, saying China, for illustration nan United States and its ISS partners, plans to statesman motorboat fliers from different nations, including abstraction tourists.

"We will accelerate nan investigation and promotion of nan information of overseas astronauts and abstraction visitors successful flights pinch China's abstraction station," he said successful translated remarks published by The Washington Post. "We decidedly expect to spot astronauts of different identities connected China's abstraction station."

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