BEIJING: The China Space Station staged its first “heavenly reunion” of six taikonauts on Tuesday evening after it entered the application and development phase at the end of 2022. Led by mission commander and veteran taikonaut Jing Haipeng, the in-coming Shenzhou-16 trio entered the space station at 6:22 pm on Tuesday where they received warm embraces from their Shenzhou-15 brothers.
The historic moment marked the beginning of China’s second in-orbit direct hand-over between two Shenzhou crews, following the first one between the Shenzhou-15 and Shenzhou-14 crew in November 2022.
Shenzhou-15 mission commander Fei Junlong and his fellow crew members Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu, who are famous for their great skills and passion for Chinese calligraphy, decorated the Tianhe core module with red and joyful cou-plets for the welcome party. The six taikonauts exchanged hugs and firm hand-shakes before they have a group picture taken to celebrate the reunion in space.
Next, the crew of the two missions will carry out an in-orbit handover and will live together in the space station for about five days before the Shenzhou-15 returns to Earth, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Currently, a total of 17 astronauts are in orbit six taikonauts from China, five NASA astronauts from the US, three cosmonauts from Russia, two from Saudi Arabia and one from the UAE.
Marking the first manned space mission after China’s space station entered its ap-plication and development phase, the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft carrying three taiko-nauts was successfully launched onboard a Long March-2F carrier rocket at 9:31 am on Tuesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center located in Northwest China.
After a flight of around 10 minutes, the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft successfully sepa-rated from the launch vehicle and entered its preset orbit, with the crew members in good condition, according to a statement the CMSA sent to the Global Times, announcing the success of the launch mission.
At 4:29 pm on Tuesday, some six and a half hours after launch, the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft docked with the Tianhe core module’s radial port, announced the CMSA.
For the team lineup, the Shenzhou-16 includes a payload expert, Gui Haichao, along with flight engineer Zhu Yangzhu – two first-timers in a crew that will be led by veteran taikonaut Jing Haipeng, whose trip marks his fourth time in space.
All three crew members hold a doctorate degree and are members of the Com-munist Party of China.
It is the first time Chin has sent a civilian taikonaut to space. Gui, the 36-year-old bespectacled payload specialist, has attracted the most public attention, as he has inspired millions of space dreamers in China and abroad. He will be responsible for managing and operating scientific research and experimental projects in the space station, focusing mainly on the management and operation of payloads.
Zhu the flight engineer will be responsible for routine maintenance and repair of the space station and technical tests and experiments.
During their mission, the Shenzhou-16 crew will continue to conduct extravehicu-lar activities and cargo airlock extravehicular tasks, space science experiments, and the trial of new technologies. The mission will include platform management, tai-konaut support system tests, and science education activities, the Global Times learned from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). –The Daily Mail-Global
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