Beijing [China], May 31: China on Tuesday successfully sent another team of astronauts to its space station Tiangong (Heavenly Palace).
The astronauts - called taikonauts in China - took off aboard the Shenzhou 16 spacecraft from the Jiuquan spaceport in the north west of the country.
A so-called Long March 2F rocket took them into space to replace their colleagues after six months in space.
Only 18 minutes after the launch, the director of the space centre Zou Lipeng announced the "complete success" of the launch.
The Shenzhou 16 spacecraft reached orbit as planned, with its solar sails opening without any problems.
The space programme announced the spacecraft had docked with its space station Tiangong after six and a half hours.
Among the three astronauts is the scientist GuiHaichao from the Beihang University, the first civilian in Chinese space history. He is expected to conduct experiments on board. All other Chinese astronauts so far have been from china's military.
"It's great - Sitting on top of the rocket, what a feeling," GuiHaichao said during the launch.
The other two astronauts are Jing Haipeng, who with his fourth space flight can claim more missions than any other Chinese space traveller, and flight engineer Zhu Yangzhu.
Jing Haipeng said, "we have gotten along like a family."
The three astronauts from Shenzhou 16 will stay at the station for five months.
The current space station crew, FeiJunlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu, are expected to return to Earth on Saturday. However, the date has not been officially confirmed.
Shenzhou 16 is already the fifth manned mission to the Chinese space station, which began regular operations at the beginning of the year.
In early May, a cargo flight brought more supplies including food, spare parts and 600 kilograms of fuel in preparation for the three new astronauts.
China now operates a modern space station that explores the Moon and Mars after being the third country to send astronauts into space, and they continue to pursue an ambitious space programme to quickly catch up with the US and Russia.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said they see the US and China in a "space race," while the leadership in Beijing is concerned with national prestige and the global technological leadership role. China aims to send astronauts to the moon for the first time by 2030, while the US is planning another Artemis moon mission for late 2025.
Both space nations have their sights set on the moon's south pole, where frozen water is suspected.
China is going even further than the US and is already planning to build a manned station on the moon, wanting to cooperate with other countries such as Russia.
With about 1,000 tonnes, the Heavenly Palace is the only other outpost in space after the International Space Station (ISS), which has been in permanent operation since 2000 and is four times bigger but shows its age by now.
Source: Qatar Tribune
