Chinese astronauts dock at a space station – here’s their mission

Shenzhou-12 . spacecraft launch It took place from Gansu Province in the northwestern part of the country before 03:30 Swedish time – and at 10:00 Swedish time, according to Chinese state media, the spacecraft docked with the Tiangong space station.

It is China’s first manned space flight in five years.

The three Taekwon astronauts – as they are called by the Chinese astronauts – are Ni Haisheng, 56, Liu Beoming, 54, and Tang Hongbo, 45.

The three astronauts will work and live aboard the cylindrical Tianhe – the first of three modules on the station – for three months, in a space 16.6 meters long and 4.2 meters in diameter.

The work they will do is not pioneering or special in itself. They will compile, modify and update the Official Activities Module within a year and a half. It’s a construction mission that, in a way, was described by space scientist Brad Tucker as the TT mission before launch.

The mission is the third of eleven missions – four of which are manned – needed to complete the Chinese space station.

The space station is one of many Chinese projects in space. Sensors have previously landed on Mars and the Moon. The space station will give China a permanent presence in space when completed. The country does not have access to the largest international space station, the ISS, as the US space agency prevents NASA from cooperating with China.