Chinese astronauts arrive at their space station for their longest manned mission

AFP, published on Saturday, October 16, 2021 at 7:44 a.m.

They and she will stay six months in space, a record for China: three astronauts, including a woman, arrived on Saturday at the site of the Chinese space station, in order to continue its construction.

Their Shenzhou-13 spacecraft was propelled overnight at 12:23 a.m. (4:23 p.m. GMT Friday) by a Long March 2F rocket, from the Jiuquan launch pad in the northwestern Gobi Desert, according to the China Flights Agency. manned space (CMSA). She described the take-off as a success and assured that the crew were “in good health”.

Less than seven hours after launch, the Shenzhou-13 docked at the space station’s radial port.

At an altitude of around 350-400 km, the three astronauts will stay in Tianhe (“Heavenly Harmony”), the only module already in orbit of the three that will eventually constitute the space station.

For six months, they will have to continue building the station, check the various equipment, but also carry out scientific experiments, in particular by providing valuable information on how their body adapts to this long stay.

Astronauts will also perform two or three spacewalks.

Their stay will double the duration record for a Chinese manned mission, set in September by members of the previous mission, Shenzhou-12, who stayed three months in Tianhe.

“The reason for this extended stay is to gain experience in long-duration missions,” said Erik Seedhouse, a professor specializing in space operations at Embry-Riddle University of Aeronautics in the United States. . “The main difficulty for astronauts will be to maintain their muscle mass and reduce their bone loss” in a weightless environment that weakens organisms.

– “Ripe enough” –

The new crew includes two men: Zhai Zhigang (55), the first Chinese to perform a spacewalk, in 2008, and Ye Guangfu (41), whose first space flight is.

They will team up with Wang Yaping (41), who is taking part in a new manned mission, eight years after a first trip in 2013, which made her the second Chinese in space.

Known for having given during her previous stay a live physics course to 60 million schoolchildren thanks to a video link, she will repeat the experience during this mission. She will also become the first Chinese woman to perform a spacewalk.

Photos released by the space agency show the three astronauts waving to those who came to cheer them on before the launch.

“China is not going to reinvent the wheel” with Shenzhou-13, notes Chen Lan, an analyst with the GoTaikonauts.com website, specializing in the Chinese space program. “This will not be a big challenge for China as its technologies are now quite mature. But any operation in space is inherently a challenge …”

This mission is the fifth of the 11 (inhabited and unmanned) required in total for the construction of the Chinese space station, which should be completed by the end of 2022.

Called Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”), it will be similar in size to the former Soviet Mir station (1986-2001). Its lifespan will be at least 10 years.

– Robot and GPS –

The other two modules constituting the station, named Mengtian and Wentian (laboratories), will be sent to space next year and docked in Tianhe. They will make it possible to carry out experiments in biotechnology, medicine or astronomy.

The Chinese ambition to build a station was fueled by the American refusal to accept Chinese people on the International Space Station (ISS) – resulting from a collaboration between the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan.

For its part, the Chinese space agency again assured Thursday that foreign astronauts could visit Tiangong.

China has been investing billions of euros for several decades to catch up with other space powers.

In May, it became the second country, after the United States, to make a small robot evolve on Mars. China also landed a machine on the far side of the Moon in early 2019 – a world first.

Last year, it had brought back lunar samples and finalized Beidou, its navigation system competing with the American GPS. It placed its first sun observation satellite in orbit around the Earth on Thursday.

Looking further ahead, Beijing plans to send humans to the Moon (around 2030) and build a base there with Russia.

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