China announces 3-member crew for Shenzhou-14 spacecraft to be launched on June 5
China on Saturday announced a three-member crew will travel with the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft on a six-month mission to complete construction of the country’s space station currently orbiting. around the earth. The Shenzhou-14 spacecraft carrying astronauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe will dock with the Tiangong space station currently under construction, the China Manned Space Administration (CMSA) announced on Saturday. .
The Shenzhou-14 spacecraft will be launched by a Long March-2F anti-aircraft missile on Sunday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
Before that, a three-member crew of Chinese astronauts, including a woman, returned to Earth in April after spending a record six months building vital parts of the space station. pillar, is expected to be ready this year.
They have completed verification of its space station’s key technologies, according to CMSA.
Once ready, China will be the only country to own a space station. International Space Station (ISS) of Russia is a cooperative project of several countries.
The China Space Station (CSS) is also expected to be a competitor to the Russian-built ISS.
Observers say that CSS could become the only space station to stay in orbit when the ISS is decommissioned in the coming years.
Chen, who will be the commander of the new mission, has joined the Shenzhou-11 crewed mission, Liu in the Shenzhou-9 mission and Cai is a newcomer to space, said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of CMSA. at the press. conference at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
The trio will be in orbit for six months, Lin said.
The Shenzhou-14 mission will complete the construction of the Tiangong space station, with a basic three-module structure consisting of the Tianhe core module and the Wentian and Mengtian laboratory modules.
The Shenzhou-14 mission will build the space station into a national space laboratory, Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of CMSA, was quoted as saying by state news agency Xinhua.
During its stay in orbit, the Shenzhou-14 crew will witness two laboratory modules, the Tianzhou-5 cargo ship and the Shenzhou-15 crewed spaceship dock with the module. core Tianhe.
They will orbit with the Shenzhou-15 crew and return to the Dongfeng landing site in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, northern China, in December, Lin said.
Shenzhou-14 will be the third of four crewed missions – and the seventh out of 11 missions – needed to complete the space station by the end of the year.
China began construction of its three-module space station in April 2021 with the launch of Tianhe – the first and largest of the station’s three modules.
