The three astronauts who blasted off Thursday from the Jiuquan launch center in northwestern China will stay three months in the Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony.
Chinese astronauts, from left, Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng, and Liu Boming wave as they prepare to board for liftoff Thursday at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan in northwestern China. China plans to launch three astronauts onboard the Shenzhou-12 spaceship who will be the first crew members to live on China's new orbiting space station Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony.
Ng Han Guan/APJIUQUAN, China — Under bright-blue morning skies, China launched its first crewed space mission in five years Thursday, sending three science-minded military pilots rocketing to a new orbiting station they're expected to reach around midafternoon.
The astronauts, already wearing their spacesuits, were seen off by space officials, other uniformed military personnel and a crowd of children waving flowers and flags and singing patriotic songs. The three gave final waves to a crowd of people waving flags, then entered the elevator to take them to the spaceship at the Jiuquan launch center in northwestern China.
The astronauts are traveling in the Shenzhou-12 spaceship launched by a Long March-2F Y12 rocket that blasted off shortly after the target time of 9:22 a.m. (0122 GMT) with near-perfect visibility at the launch center on the edge of the Gobi Desert.
The two veteran astronauts and a newcomer making his first space flight are scheduled to stay three months in the Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony, conducting experiments, testing equipment and preparing the station for expansion before two laboratory modules are launched next year.
The rocket dropped its boosters about two minutes into the flight followed by the coiling surrounding Shenzhou-12 at the top of the rocket. After about 10 minutes it separated from the rocket's upper section, extended its solar panels and shortly afterward entered orbit.
About a half-dozen adjustments will take place over the next four to six hours to line up the spaceship for docking with the Tianhe at about 4 p.m. (0800 GMT), the mission's deputy chief designer, Gao Xu, told state broadcaster CCTV.
The travel time is down from the two days it took to reach China's earlier experimental space stations, a result of a "great many breakthroughs and innovations" Gao said.
"So the astronauts can a have a good rest in the space which should make them less tired," Gao said.
Other improvements include an increase in the number of automated and remote-controlled systems that should "significantly lessen the pressure on the astronauts," Gao said.
The mission brings to 14 the number of astronauts China has launched into space since its first crewed mission in 2003, becoming only the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to do so on its own. Two astronauts on those past missions were women, and while this first station crew is all male, women are expected to be part of future station crews.
The mission is the third of 11 planned through next year to add the additional sections to the station and send up crews and supplies. A fresh three-member crew and a cargo ship with supplies will be sent in three months.
China is not a participant in the International Space Station, largely as a result of U.S. objections to the Chinese programs secrecy and close military ties. However, China has been stepping up cooperation with Russia and a host of other countries, and its station may continue operating beyond the International Space Station, which is reaching the end of its functional life.
China landed a probe on Mars last month that carried a rover, the Zhurong, and earlier landed a probe and rover on the moon's less explored far side and brought back the first lunar samples by any country's space program since the 1970s.
After the Tianhe was launched in April, the rocket that carried it into space made an uncontrolled reentry to Earth, though China dismissed criticism of the potential safety hazard. Usually, discarded rocket stages reenter the atmosphere soon after liftoff, normally over water, and don't go into orbit.
The rocket used Thursday is of a different type and the components that will reenter are expected to burn up long before they could be a danger, said Ji Qiming, assistant director of the China Manned Space Agency.
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The Chinese space program doesn't get a lot of press, but much like the country itself, they've made stunning progress in a short period of time. It's 18 years from their first manned space flight, and here they are successfully building a modular space station, returning samples from the Moon and landing a rover on Mars. They're experimenting with a SpaceX-style reusable rocket, a Mars sample return mission and are planning to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, and unlike NASA's plans, they appear serious about it too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_space_program (a mess of current and obsolete programs, but gives some idea of the breadth of their ambitions)
Things will get even more interesting next year if India launches their first manned spaceflight as planned.
It gets a ton of press in the United States. Mars mission, manned launches, and other achievements have been featured prominently by the national broadcasters, the New York Times, and Internet outlets. A few years back there was a movie in which a Chinese space station was featured (based on a Russian template, which figured into the story).
What these reports don't have are details. And that's not surprising, because the Chinese government doesn't share many details about its space program, or give any access to media outside of China.
That used to be the case, but is not so much anymore: for example, Reuters filmed the launch today live. Wenchang spaceport, on China's Hawaii-equivalent island of Hainan, which you can even visit visa-free in pre-COVID times, has become a major Cape Canaveral-style space tourism destination with rocket watchers gathering for launch picnics, streaming live, etc. Today's launch was from the other major spaceport at Jiuquan though, which is the middle of nowhere deep in the Gobi Desert.
That said, the Chinese space program has deep military roots and every Chinese astronaut to date is an air force pilot, so we're not going to see NASA-style transparency anytime soon.
>That said, the Chinese space program has deep military roots and every Chinese astronaut to date is an air force pilot
Is your implication that the American space programme somehow does not have deep military roots?
By unethical_ban 2021-06-1714:14 No. Rather, the US is farther out from our military-only space roots than China.
By brnt 2021-06-187:47 NASA was split off in 1958 and made a civilian agency, while the Chinese space programme has not, and probably never will.
By throwaway4good 2021-06-1713:25 I think being an air force pilot is a suitable background for becoming an astronaut. Possibly even a better background than being a billionaire in a mid-life crisis.
By triceratops 2021-06-1713:55 > every Chinese astronaut to date is an air force pilot
IIRC most early American astronauts were also military aviators - either air force or navy.
By Iv 2021-06-1716:17 I can't find a single picture of the exterior or the interior of the space station. Not a single, actual, picture.
By throwaway210222 2021-06-1713:581 reply > so we're not going to see NASA-style transparency anytime soon.
To what I ask "tell me ALL about your X-37 space plane."
By NikolaeVarius 2021-06-1714:081 reply Oh yes, the Plane that is operated by DARPA and not NASA.
By throwaway210222 2021-06-1811:27 The X-37 began as a NASA project in 1999, before being transferred to the United States Department of Defense in 2004.
Sigh.
By cameldrv 2021-06-1716:35 They have made a lot of progress quickly. By comparison, Russia went from first manned space flight to a space station in 10 years, and the U.S. did the same in 11 years.
It should also be noted that the Shenzhou spacecraft is a licensed copy of the Soyuz with some updates.
The Chinese space station core module Tianhe is likewise a licensed, updated copy of the Russian International Space Station core module Zvezda.
Not to downplay their success too much, but doing those things in the 2020s, while still expensive and difficult, is not nearly as expensive and difficult as doing them in the 1990s.
And given their propensity for stealing Western IP, would anyone be surprised to learn some of China’s progress is thanks to groundwork laid by Western space companies and agencies?
Probably everyone know “ standing on the shoulders of giants”. Every new discovery is based on knowledge acquired from previous discoveries. What is achieved by USA is also standing on the work of previous great civilizations.
Indeed all the knowledge USA today have, is built on top of knowledge brought in by immigrants from their respective society, culture and place.
China is not the only country trying space missions. European Union, Japan, South Korea and India has also been trying for years. Besides Russia, USA now China is 3rd country to successfully launch a space station and then take crew to it, despite the sanctions and constant blocking of technology transfer (indeed forgetting the basic tenet of standing on the shoulders of giants).
It’s a big achievement for China given they were blocked from ISS and need to re-invent the wheels. Hopefully they will be able to show same innovation and operational capability in space as they have shown in fast speed bullet trains.
Personally I hope that humanity can come together to have more collaborations on space, given it will be the only hope if something happens to Earth.
Docking of spacecraft with crew is a win for science and another feather in understanding space. Congratulations to all the scientists and people involved in this project, they deserve an applause for the this feat.
Please don't abuse the phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants." It's the difference between riffing off a work of art to produce something novel versus plagiarism. What China does is the latter, not the former. It's not "standing on the shoulders of giants."
And in this case it's worse: China's government is engaged in a genocide and empire building at least as bad as any colonial power in the West, and likely worse due to its extremely oppressive, authoritarian nature. Their achievements are not only built on theft of others' hard work, but on the backs of the oppressed people that have guns pointed at their heads.
> Personally I hope that humanity can come together to have more collaborations on space, given it will be the only hope if something happens to Earth.
I do, too. But China isn't going to contribute to that: they'd rather let others do the hard work and then steal it. It's not a bad strategy in some respects. But it's not respectable or good in any meaningful sense as it applies to a shared endeavor such as you describe.
By dragonsh 2021-06-1715:28 > I do, too.
Sorry based on your comment, it seems not.
There is a clear strong negative bias towards China in your comment and lack of understanding with “standing on the shoulders of giants”.
You can read all about rockets, still it will be hard to build one. Very few companies and countries are able to do space missions, even with the availability of all the know how. India took two decades to build cryogenic engines based on the Russian design and specifications, called CE-7.5 (and variants with minor changes). It helped them build CE-20 later and it’s still hard and they are working on it.
So may be for once just keep your bias on side and be able to acknowledge the achievements based on science.
By BelenusMordred 2021-06-1715:001 reply > Their achievements are not only built on theft of others' hard work, but on the backs of the oppressed people that have guns pointed at their heads.
By sidlls 2021-06-1715:20 Tu quoque arguments are rather poor, really.
By trasz 2021-06-1714:43 Nice, comparing Chinese "genocide" - roughly similar in shape to what the West calls "youth penitentiary prisons" - to actual crimes, ranging from Guantanamo to continued oppression of racial minorities.
Not really, they signed a bunch of deals with Russia to legally import their IP wholesale. For example, the Shenzhou spaceship flown today is a direct descendant of the venerable Soviet Soyuz. (Which is still being flown to the ISS as well.)
I know it's easy to think "cheap Chinese copy fnarr fnarr", but so far they have a perfect track record for human spaceflight (and no, even the CCP couldn't cover up a space accident).
By xwolfi 2021-06-1714:15 And the Saturn V rocket was designed by an upstanding american citizen totally from scratch :p
By kerng 2021-06-1713:51 Operation Titan Rain also comes to mind. It was so long ago that hardly anyone knows or talks about the massive IP theft happening late 90s and early 2000s.
Yeah, but I’m pretty sure they don’t publicize the use of tech that they pilfered.
By dragonsh 2021-06-1714:04 Probably everyone know “ standing on the shoulders of giants”. Every new discovery is based on knowledge acquired from previous discoveries. What is achieved by USA is also standing on the work of previous great civilizations. Indeed all the knowledge USA today have is built on top of knowledge brought in by those immigrants from their respective society, culture and place.
China is not the only country trying space missions. European Union, Japan, South Korea and India has also been trying for years. Besides Russia, USA now China is 3rd country to successfully launch a space station and then take crew to it, despite the sanctions and constant blocking of technology transfer (indeed forgetting the basic tenet of standing on the shoulders of giants).
It’s a big achievement for China given they were blocked from ISS and need to re-invent the wheels. Hopefully they will be able to show same innovation and operational capability in space as they have shown in fast speed bullet trains.
Personally I hope that humanity can come together to have more collaborations on space, given it will be the only hope if something happens to Earth.
Docking of spacecraft with crew is a win for science and another feather in understanding space. Congratulations to all the scientists and people involved in this project, they deserve an applause for the this feat.
By Iv 2021-06-1716:15 Well, the world is out of nazi scientists to steal knowledge from...
By jiminymcmoogley 2021-06-1714:31 >stealing western IP
The term youre looking for is copying without authorization, to steal IP requires that the original intellectual good be removed from its proprietor, which, short of a "Men In Black" style brainalyzer, is simply not possible
I trust that in order to preserve and strengthen the incentive structure around the creation of novel intellectual goods, such a device should be technologically within reach within the next 20 years, and hopefully the world's IP lobbies will be granted special powers to compel the use of such devices in cases where individuals find themselves coming into possession of protected intellectual goods without authorization
In answer to your question though, no, I do not think anyone would be surprised if some of China's progress is thanks to the groundwork laid by Western space companies and agencies.
By JKCalhoun 2021-06-1714:01 Is anyone surprised with regard to the U.S. progress in rocketry thanks to the groundwork laid by the Nazi military?
I agree with your first comment but just found your second one a little strange.
By swiley 2021-06-1713:56 Meh, we had a space station pretty shortly after our first manned flights and so did Russia and that's when this stuff was new. Going to space is impressive but this isn't unique or anything.
The picture of the crew is nice and all ( good luck guys! ), but I did miss some pictures of the actual space station.
This article has some : https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57504052
By codys 2021-06-1713:33 I don't see any photos of it in that article.
There's a drawing of what it will look like when "complete", but no indication of what it currently consists of (and it's still an artist's rendering).
Would be interested in actual current photos.
By corentin88 2021-06-1712:335 reply Funny how this information is timidly reported by western medias. In France, where I live, it was pretty down on the homepage of Le Monde, a famous newspaper. Launches to the ISS seem more promoted.
Edit: it’s the first article on the BBC so it might be relevant only to French medias.
Almost like we all know the name of first man on the moon, but have no idea who the other 11 were.
By corentin88 2021-06-1712:451 reply There wasn’t even the name of the 3 Chinese that just went to space in Le Monde’s article.
By brnt 2021-06-1712:48 The Dutch article on the public broadcasters website I link below spends a paragraph on the crew composition and their previous history in the program.
Perhaps Le Monde isn't quite so representative as you appear to think it is?
By 88840-8855 2021-06-1712:391 reply My impression of German media I read (FAZ, SPON, Welt, taz and a regional paper) is that nothing positive is being reported that is linked to China. I have the feeling that negative articles are highlighted and very visible (and receive many anti-China comments) while positive articles do not exist at all - and if they published, then there is little interest and only a few comments.
The biggest positive article in the last months was their landing on Mars. However, it received only very little attention. On "Welt" it was bombarded with anti-Chinese comments and then the comment section was closed.
I wonder why I realise this phenomenon. Perhaps it is my Confirmation Bias?
Just wanted to share those thoughts with you.
More anecdata from NL : China bad, Russians bad.
What surprises me the most as a child from the 80ies is how Russia has been resurrected as public enemy #1.
The article on the Dutch public broadcaster is extremely neutral and more detailed than I anticipated [1].
Not sure how Russia is related to the Chinese space program, but the coverage of Russian critics is pretty well done, I would say. Not enough maybe.
It goes without saying there can be very little good to report on the Russian government, but let's please not reduce the largest European country to their leadership.
[1] https://nos.nl/artikel/2385399-china-lanceert-taikonauten-na...
I included zhe Russians because the approach seems equivalent.
Somehow, the average Dutch anonymous website commenter thinks Putin is an evil dictator who must be punished at all costs and the Chinese are performing a literal holocaust while their citizens have an awful unfree life.
Those claims are well-supported by evidence. If you would like to dispute that evidence, go ahead.
But if that sort of news is all you read about China and Russia, you seem to be clicking only on the political headlines. Plenty other news is covered from those countries.
By the-dude 2021-06-1713:04 That's what I said.
By throwaway4good 2021-06-1713:15 The media in most European countries do not have the resources to do independent reporting on China nor Russia, and thus relies a few usually American news outlets. I have notice how one often can find articles, where you can see on the language it has been translated line from line from an English source.
By mensetmanusman 2021-06-1714:11 The invasion of Ukraine and assassination attempts of its own citizens in the EU didn’t help.
It’s hard to hide spycraft these days, and the daily satellite updates showing Chinese expansion into contested territory is the main news story for those countries being impacted.
By rasz 2021-06-1722:55 Its almost like China thrown all western reporters out or something.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56617060
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/journalists-g...
By hulitu 2021-06-1714:24 Well America friend, china enemy. News outlets are also propaganda outlets so it is to be expected.
I m French but I live in China, here it's reported like the second coming of Mao.
It's incredible luck it synchronized near perfectly with the 100 anniversary of the party "without which there would be no new China".
By tibbydudeza 2021-06-1717:57 Much like NASA the CNSA has to play politics and it's fair share of butt kissing politicians to get it's funding.
