Astronaut Chen Dong (43 years old) and his teammates Liu Yang (43 years old) and Cai Xuzhe (46 years old) will stay at Tiangong, the Chinese space station currently under construction, for six months to complete the assembly, testing, and operation of critical equipment.
Chinese astronauts on the Shenzhou-14 mission.
On June 5 (local time), China launched the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft, sending three astronauts to the Tiangong space station for a six-month mission aboard the station.
According to the plan, these three astronauts will work in coordination with the ground control center to complete the assembly and construction of Tiangong, transforming the space station from a single-module facility into a national space laboratory consisting of three modules: the core module Tianhe and the two experimental modules Wentian and Mengtian.
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) reported that the Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 10:44 AM on June 5 (local time). Approximately 577 seconds after liftoff, the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit.
Earlier, at a press conference on June 4, CMSA Deputy Director Lin Xiqiang stated that the astronauts aboard Shenzhou-14 would work with the ground control center to complete the assembly of the two laboratory modules with the core module.
The Tianhe module was activated in April 2021, while the Wentian module is scheduled to be launched to the Tiangong station in July, and the Mengtian module will be launched to this space station in October of this year.
During their time on the Tiangong station, the Shenzhou-14 astronaut team will witness the Tianzhou-5 cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-15 spacecraft docking with the Tianhe module. Afterwards, they will live and work alongside the crew of Shenzhou-15 for several days before returning to Earth in December this year.
China first sent humans into space in 2003. The country launched a lunar probe in December 2020 and another probe to Mars in May 2021. The first module of the Tiangong Space Station was assembled in April 2021.
