China space station: Shenzhou-12 delivers first crew to Tianhe module
China has launched three astronauts into orbit to begin occupation of the country's new space station.
The three men - Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo - are to spend three months aboard the Tianhe module some 380km (236 miles) above the Earth.
It will be China's longest crewed space mission to date and the first in nearly five years.
The crew successfully docked with the space station just over seven hours after the launch.
China, Russia reveal roadmap for international moon base
Russia and China unveiled a roadmap for a joint International Lunar Research Station Wednesday to guide collaboration and development of the project.
Chinese and Russian space officials revealed the plans June 16 at the Global Space Exploration (GLEX) conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, stating that the ILRS has received the interest of a number of countries and organizations.
Also at Washington Post.
Previously: Rocket in Place to Send 3 Crew to Chinese Space Station
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Rocket in place to send 3 crew to Chinese space station:
The rocket that will send three crew members to start living on China's new orbiting space station has been moved onto the launch pad ahead of its planned blastoff next week. The three astronauts plan to spend three months on the space station doing spacewalks, construction and maintenance work and science experiments.
The main section of the Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony, station was launched into orbit on April 29, and a cargo spacecraft sent up last month carried fuel, food and equipment to the station in preparation for the crewed mission.
The Long March-2F Y12 rocket carrying the Shenzhou-12 spaceship was transferred to the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Wednesday, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said in a brief statement.
The space agency plans a total of 11 launches through the end of next year to deliver two laboratory modules to expand the 70-ton station, along with supplies and crew members. Next week's launch will be the third of those, and the first of the four crewed missions planned.
[...] China said in March the astronauts training for the upcoming crewed missions were a mix of space travel veterans and newcomers and included some women. The first station crew will be all male, though women will be part of future crews, according to Yang Liwei, who orbited Earth in China's first crewed mission in 2003 and is now an official at the space agency.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @08:40PM
Manned space flight is a big deal and operating your own space station takes it even further.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Snotnose on Thursday June 17 2021, @08:40PM (7 children)
"successfully launched" can also be read as "no big assed chunk of metal with a bunch of toxic stuff hasn't landed on a village of folks making $50 a year". Combined with "don't mind us, that village won't exist tomorrow morning".
Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
(Score: 2) by pe1rxq on Thursday June 17 2021, @08:46PM (2 children)
What? They missed flyover country again?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @09:15PM (1 child)
In China it's "fall onto" country
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @11:21PM
Dump onto, more accurate.
“Give me your garbage, your plastics,
Your rusted masses yearning to leach lead,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the late model iPods, to me,
I lift my leg and give you a golden shower!”
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday June 17 2021, @09:22PM
Hey, that booster's gotta go somewhere.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday June 17 2021, @10:16PM (1 child)
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?"...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @11:23PM
Take the glory, socialize the losses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 18 2021, @02:41AM
Incorrect. As long as the payload reaches its target orbit then it was a successful launch. What happens to the booster after that is the launch provider's problem (if SpaceX) or everybody else's problem (if PRC) or a controlled ocean disposal (everybody else).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @09:21PM (2 children)
redundancy is important!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @11:24PM
yay im the redundant part so proud
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday June 18 2021, @04:14PM
Especially when robots make your job redundant.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @09:23PM (2 children)
... that they want to put the moon base in Aristarchus Crater
(not that I expect them to get it done)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @09:57PM (1 child)
Is that a goatse reference?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 17 2021, @10:12PM
Aristarchus IS Goatse. And, Goatse is Aristarchus.
https://spacenews.com/china-russia-reveal-roadmap-for-international-moon-base/ [spacenews.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @10:17PM
Doing a few conference sessions . And Airbus, did not realize they did space stuff, maybe need to change their name
https://www.iafastro.org/assets/images/events/glex/glex2021ataglance.png [iafastro.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 18 2021, @01:11AM
They let NK suck their reptilian cocks as well as Iran.