THE nation launched a Shenzhou-23 spacecraft and eased it into a successful docking with a space station early yesterday as part of Beijing’s ambitions to send humans to the Moon by 2030, state media said.
During this mission, a Chinese astronaut is scheduled to spend a full year in orbit on the Tiangong space station, a crucial first in the Chinese lunar landing programme.
The Long March 2-F rocket blasted off in a cloud of flames and smoke on time at 11.08pm on Sunday from the Jiuquan launch centre in China’s northwestern Gobi Desert, video from state broadcaster CCTV showed.
The spacecraft separated from the rocket around 10 minutes later and entered orbit, the Chinese Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said on social media.
“The astronauts are in good condition, and the launch has been a complete success,” it added.
The spacecraft docked successfully with the Tiangong space station after a flight of about 3.5 hours, the state news agency Xinhua reported, quoting CMSA.
The mission marks the first spaceflight by an astronaut from Hong Kong: 43-year-old Lai Ka-ying, who previously worked for the Hong Kong police.
The two other crew members are 39-year-old space engineer Zhu Yangzhu and 39-year-old Zhang Zhiyuan, a former air force pilot, who is travelling into space for the first time.
Cheering crowds waved Chinese flags at a farewell ceremony ahead of the launch, while a band played and the three astronauts saluted on stage.
The crew is set to carry out numerous scientific projects in life sciences, materials science, fluid physics and medicine.
A key experiment of Shenzhou-23 will be the full-year stay in orbit by one of the crew in order to study the effects of a long stay in microgravity.
The experiment is part of China’s preparations for future lunar missions, as well as missions to Mars.
The astronaut selected for this one-year mission will be named at a later date, depending on the progress of the Shenzhou-23 mission, a spokesperson for the CMSA said.
The main challenges will involve long-term effects on humans, including bone density loss, muscle wasting, radiation exposure, sleep disturbances, behavioural and psychological fatigue, said Richard de Grijs, an astrophysicist and professor at Macquarie University in Australia.
He also underlined the importance of reliable water and air recycling systems, as well as the ability to manage potential medical emergencies far from Earth.
China is “steadily” building operational experience for “sustained occupation” of its Tiangong space station, and year-long missions are an important step towards future lunar and potentially deep-space ambitions, de Grijs told AFP.
“A year in orbit pushes both hardware and humans into a different operational regime compared with the shorter Shenzhou missions of the programme’s earlier phases,” he said.
Crews aboard Tiangong have until now largely remained in orbit for six months before being replaced.
The Shenzhou-23 mission is part of China’s goal to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, a race in which the United States is also competing with its Artemis programme. — AFP
