Jiuquan launch base (China) (EFE).- The Chinese ship Shenzhou-16 took off today towards the Tiangong space station with three astronauts on board, who will become the first to board it after the previous crew completed its construction at the end of 2022.
The launch was carried out successfully from the Jiuquan (north) base, located in a desert area, at 09:31 local time (01:31 GMT).
A Long March 2F rocket propelled the Shenzhou-16 into space, whose crew, who will spend approximately five months at Tiangong, include a veteran with four missions experience, Jing Haipeng, and two rookies, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao, the first Chinese astronaut who is not a member of the People’s Liberation Army (Chinese Army).
They will be the first crew members of the Tiangong station
The three “taikonauts” (as Chinese cosmonauts are known) put into orbit today will be the first crew members of Tiangong during what will be its application and development phase.
Base sources said the Shenzhou-16 is expected to take six to seven hours to reach the space station.
Shenzhou-16 will be the seventh ship to visit Tiangong
The Shenzhou-16 will be the seventh ship to visit the Tiangong, in which the crew of the Shenzhou-15 are already waiting for the new tenants of the facilities to hand them over after living with them for the next few days, a routine that will be the tonic during the following missions.
Tiangong, which will operate for about ten years, is likely to become the world’s only space station by 2024 if the International Space Station, an initiative led by the United States and to which China has banned access due to military ties from his space program, he retires that year as scheduled.
China has invested heavily in its space program and has managed to land the Chang’e 4 probe on the far side of the Moon -the first time it has been achieved- and reach Mars for the first time, becoming the third country -after the United States and the extinct Soviet Union – in “martizar”.