In a major step towards the expansion of its space programs, China “successfully” launched the Shenzou-19 spaceship carrying three astronauts to Tiangong space station for six months, reported the Associated Press on Wednesday.
The trio, including two male and one female astronaut, will replace the astronauts who have lived at the Tiangong space station for the last six months. They are likely to remain there till April-May next year.
State-run China Xinhua News shared the breathtaking visual of the spaceship's launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 4:27 a.m.
“The crew condition is good and the launch has been successful,” the state broadcaster China Central Television announced.
The astronaut team sent to the space station included two men and a woman. Former Air Force pilot, Cai Xuzhe, is the new mission commander. Xuzhe had wnt to the space in the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022. Other two crew members will travel into the space for the first time.
Other two members of the team Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, are first-time space travelers, born in the 1990s. Song was an air force pilot and Wang an engineer with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Wang will be the crew’s payload specialist and the third Chinese woman aboard a crewed mission.
China created its own space station after the country was excluded from the International Space Station, after the US expressed concerns over the control of the People's Liberation Army over the space program. The exclusion marked the rivalry between China and the US in space. China is actively working to on its moon program and plans to send an astronaut on the moon before 2030. If this happens, China will become the second nation after the United States to achieve the feat. It also plans to build a research station on the moon and has already transferred rock and soil samples from the little-explored far side of the moon in a global first.
