Ye Guangfu, Li Cong, and Li Guangsu
China deployed three astronauts to its permanently manned space station on Thursday for a six-month stay, as part of a regular rotation of Chinese astronauts onboard the ‘Tiangong’ orbiting high above the Earth’s atmosphere.
The spacecraft Shenzhou-18, also known as the Divine Vessel, and its three passengers launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China at 8:58 p.m. (1258 GMT) on a Long March-2F rocket.
Ye Guangfu, 43, led the six-month expedition. He had previously visited ‘Tiangong’, or ‘Heavenly Palace’ in Chinese, in October 2021 as part of China’s second crewed mission to the station.
This time, he was accomplished by Li Cong, 34, and Li Guangsu, 36, all of whom traveled in space for the first time and were part of China’s spaceflight programme.
All three individuals were former Air Force pilots.
Tiangong, which completed in late 2022, can house up to three astronauts for months at an orbital altitude of up to 450 kilometres (280 miles). It is designed to operate for at least 15 years.
Since 2021, when construction of the outpost began, China has launched two crewed missions to Tiangong per year, the seventh of which is the Shenzhou-18.
Each crew lasted for around six months, conducting spacewalks and scientific research in the station’s low-gravity environment.
After decades of being barred from entering the NASA-led International Space Station, Tiangong has become a symbol of China’s faith in its space efforts.
US law prohibits China from engaging in any direct or indirect collaboration with NASA.
Divine Vessel, also known as Shenzhou-18 marks China’s 13th crewed mission to space since Yang Liwei’s solo voyage in October 2003. Yang Liwei was the first Chinese to reach space.
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