Shenzhou XX astronauts, Senior Colonel Chen Dong (middle), Colonel Chen Zhongrui (proper) and Colonel Wang Jie, attend a departure ceremony on Thursday on the Jiuquan Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart in northwestern China. (ZHANG XIAONING/FOR CHINA DAILY)
China efficiently launched its Shenzhou XX manned spaceship on Thursday, sending three astronauts to the Tiangong area station for a six-month mission.
A Lengthy March 2F rocket blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart in northwestern China at 5:17 pm, carrying the spaceship with mission commander Senior Colonel Chen Dong and crew members Colonel Chen Zhongrui and Colonel Wang Jie onboard.
Shortly after crossing the Karman line — the boundary separating Earth’s environment and outer area at an altitude of 100 kilometers above sea degree — the Shenzhou XX spaceship separated from its provider rocket and activated speedy autonomous rendezvous-and-docking mode.
The astronauts, who’re all members of the Folks’s Liberation Military Astronaut Division, are scheduled to reach on the area station early on Friday, becoming a member of their friends from the Shenzhou XIX mission who’ve been in orbit for almost six months.
At a information convention on Wednesday on the launch web site, mission commander Chen Dong stated he was thrilled to embark on his third spaceflight. “On the one hand, I really feel immensely proud and honored, as a result of with the ability to launch into area for my nation once more is each an amazing privilege and a supply of deep happiness. Then again, there’s additionally a deep sense of anticipation, as each journey into area is exclusive. I look ahead to gaining extra expertise and attaining new breakthroughs,” he added.
Wang Jie, a former spacecraft engineer on the China Academy of Area Expertise in Beijing, stated that because the mission’s spaceflight engineer, his duties embrace platform upkeep, gear checks and repairs, dealing with emergencies, and conducting scientific experiments.
“Whereas every crew member has particular duties to finish in the course of the mission, we broadly function as a group. Each process or scientific experiment is carried out via collaboration, with every of us serving as backup for the others as and when needed,” Wang stated.
The Shenzhou XX crew is conducting China’s fifteenth manned spaceflight and would be the ninth group of residents aboard the Tiangong, which is at present the one operational area station independently run by a single nation.
After their spaceship approaches and docks with the entrance port of the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong, the trio will enter the area station to fulfill with their Shenzhou XIX friends — mission commander Senior Colonel Cai Xuzhe, Lieutenant Colonel Track Lingdong and Lieutenant Colonel Wang Haoze.
Each groups will work collectively for about 4 days to make sure a clean handover, after which the Shen-zhou XIX crew will return to Earth, with their reentry capsule scheduled for landing on Tuesday.
Over the following six months, the Shenzhou XX astronauts will perform a wide range of duties, together with scientific experiments, technological demonstrations, and spacewalks to put in area particles shielding gear and different exterior devices. They can even retrieve gear from the station’s exterior and maintain science lectures.
