Oct 26,2023: The Chinese Manned Space Agency declared the launch of the Shenzhou 17 mission a success after the Long March 2F rocket carrying the crew ship took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert at 11.14am.
It marks China’s 12th manned mission to space and China hopes its programme will eventually involve astronauts from other countries.
The craft is expected to dock at the Tiangong space station later on Thursday (six and a half hours after entering orbit) where it will orbit about 380km (236 miles) above the Earth. The Shenzhou 16 mission crew – who have been at the station for nearly five months – will be waiting to welcome the new arrivals.
Shenzhou 17 mission commander Tang Hongbo holds the record for the Chinese astronaut with the shortest interval between space missions – it has been just over two years since his last mission.
And once he enters the space station on Thursday, he will be the first astronaut to enter the station for a second time.
“I came from the countryside, and now I am a taikonaut,” Tang Hongbo said during a press conference with the astronauts on Wednesday. He said going back to the station had been his dream since he left in 2021.
He was joined by first-time space visitors Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin, former fighter pilots for the People’s Liberation Army who both joined astronaut training in 2020 in China’s third batch of recruits.
Tang Shengjie said that during training they had “mastered the technical knowledge” needed to deal with all possible challenges they might face during their six-month long mission.
The Shenzhou 16 crew, which included China’s first civilian team member, arrived in Tiangong at the end of May. They are expected to return to Earth on October 31 once the Shenzhou 17 crew has taken over.
During their busy five months in space, the Shenzhou 16 crew conducted 70 experiments in various fields, broadcast lessons to people on Earth and conducted a spacewalk.
The Shenzhou 17 crew will continue to conduct experiments and will embark on a spacewalk mission to repair the station’s solar arrays which have been damaged by small space debris hitting the station.
