China has launched the manned spacecraft "Shenzhou-16" carrying three astronauts to its space station on a five-month mission that includes conducting large-scale tests and experiments in orbit in various fields.

Edited by |Alexander Yaxina

Space   section -  CJ journalist

Jiuquan - May,31,2023

Beijing sent three astronauts to its space station, which is now fully operational, on Tuesday, as part of a rotation of crews in the fifth manned mission to the station since 2021, Chinese state media said.

The manned spacecraft Shenzhou-16 took off at nine o'clock at 31 a.m. local time (0131 GMT) carrying the three astronauts aboard a long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert in northwestern China.

The mission is a valuable experience for the Asian giant, which on Monday reaffirmed that it will send a Chinese to the moon by 2030, one of the main goals of the Chinese space program, which has advanced regularly in recent decades in an attempt to catch up with Washington and Moscow in the space race.

The astronauts on Shenzhou-16 will replace the three-man crew on board Shenzhou-15, which arrived at the space station in late November.

Work on the construction of the station, consisting of three modules, was completed at the end of last year after 11 manned and unmanned missions were sent to it since April 2021.

The new crew is led by 56-year-old Jing Haipeng, a spacecraft commander and one of the first group of trainees in the late nineties of the last century. Geng has been in space three times, including twice as the mission commander.

Jing set off on the spaceship accompanied by his colleagues Zhu yangzhu and GUI haichao, both 36 years old, boarding their first mission to space.

Beijing is expected to launch another manned mission to the orbital outpost this year. It is also planned to launch a new Space Telescope the size of a bus by the end of 2023.