In A Historic Mission, Chinese Astronauts Successfully Board ¡®Celestial Palace¡¯ Space Station
This revolutionary feat comes at a time when China¡¯s zero COVID-19 policies and economic uncertainties are causing considerable unhappiness for its citizens.
Three Chinese astronauts have successfully entered China¡¯s space station for the very first time in Chinese space history, reveals a report by Reuters.
CGTN/Xinhua
The astronauts travelled aboard spacecraft Shenzhou-15, which was launched into the lower-earth orbit atop the Long March 2-F rocket from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre at 1508 GMT or around 8:30 PM India Time, located in China¡¯s freezing Gobi Desert in the northwest region.
Shenzhou-15 was the last of the 11 missions that included three crewed missions for assembling the ¡®Celestial Palace¡¯ multi-module space station. The first mission was launched in April 2021.
The spacecraft docked with the brand-new station for over six hours post-launch. The crew from Shenzhou-15 were greeted with hugs and cheers from the previous crew that was in the space station.
Xinhua
The new crew would take over the old one, sending them back to Earth after a week¡¯s handover which will also showcase the station¡¯s ability to host six astronauts -- another record for the Chinese space program.
This revolutionary feat comes at a time when China¡¯s zero COVID-19 policies and economic uncertainties are causing considerable unhappiness for its citizens.
The astronauts aboard the ¡®Celestial Palace¡¯ are expected to conduct over 1,000 scientific experiments that¡¯ll involve studying plants¡¯s adaptation in space, the behaviour of fluids in microgravity etc.
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