China: 3rd Crewed Mission to New Space Station

 

Key Facts

• Three Astronauts will continue the construction work for six months.
• Astronauts were lifted off on Shenzhou-14 spacecraft.
• It was launched by a Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, located in Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia.

Who are the crew members?

The crew includes Chen Dong, Cau Xuzhe and Liu Yang.

Work assigned to the crew

They will live and work at Tianhe core module of Tiangong Space Station for six months. They are scheduled to return to Earth in December 2022. They will dock with the space station about 6.5 hours after launch.

Mission Commander

Chen Dong is the mission commander. In 2016, he was aboard China’s Shenzhou-11 manned space mission. He holds the record for longest stay in space by a Chinese astronaut. In 2012, Liu Yand became the first ever Chinese woman in space on Shenzhou-9 mission. This mission is going to be the first mission of Cau Zuzhe in space. They will carry out the Shenzhou-14 spaceflight mission.

3^rd Crewed Mission in Space

This is China’s third crewed mission during construction of Its space station. China has planned to have fully crewed and operational space station by December 2022. The first crewed mission was completed in September 2021, when astronauts stayed for three-months. The second mission was Shenzhou-13, in which three astronauts spend six months for the first time. Overall, China has planned six space missions before the end of 2022, including another crewed mission, two cargo missions and two laboratory modules. The team aboard Shenzhou-14 will help om docking, setting up and testing of two laboratory modules called Wentian and Mengtian. Wentian will be launched in July 2022 and Mengtian will be launched in October 2022. These modules will be assembled in T-shaped structure along with the main living space (Tianhe core cabin) for the astronauts.