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China to Launch 3 Astronauts to New Space Station: How to Watch


On Tuesday night in China, a rocket as tall as a 20-story building will carry three astronauts towards a rendezvous with the country. space station just completed.

The Shenzhou 15 mission will mark a major milestone for China’s manned space program. Here’s what you need to know about flight and why it matters.

The mission will take off at 11:08 p.m. local time on Tuesday, or 10:08 a.m. Eastern time in the United States. CGTN, China’s state-run television network, has announced that it will do the premiere live, although TV shows from China are often delayed by a few seconds in the event something goes wrong. The launch will be shown here with English commentary: https://www.cgtn.com/tv

The rocket launch will be a split-screen event for China, the latest in a long string of its technological achievements, even as many of its citizens have angry lashing on the street against the strict control of the pandemic.

Three men will board Shenzhou 15: Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu. China has selected its oldest and most experienced crew of astronauts to run the newly completed space station for the next six months. Mr. Fei, the spaceflight commander, first went to space in 2005 and was 57 years old.

He said: “I am very proud and excited to be able to go into space again for my country.

The first part of the Tiangong space station, the Tianhe core module, was launched last year. The two unpiloted parts of the orbital base, Wentian and Mengtian, were launched in separate flights in July and October, each docking in the Galaxy and completing construction of the space station.

The Galaxy Core Module has had a trio of astronauts on board shortly since last year. But Tuesday’s launch marked the beginning of continued use of the space station, with the two crews’ overlapping stays. The three Shenzhou 15 astronauts will fly to the space station and spend a week with the astronauts already there from Shenzhou 14 in a role-swap collaboration similar to what takes place on the National Space Station. economic. The Shenzhou 14 astronauts will then fly back to China while the Shenzhou 15 astronauts will stay on board Tiangong until next May, when they will be replaced by another team.

Although the astronauts were originally from China, officials said on Monday they would welcome astronauts from other countries.

China has four space rocket launch sites around the country. The only hub for expeditions is the one in use on Tuesday: the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, in the northwest of the country

Jiuquan is 150 miles from the Gobi Desert from the nearest city, Jiayuguan in Gansu Province. Construction of the center began in 1958, when it was built to develop China’s intercontinental ballistic missiles. Foreigners and even most Chinese citizens are generally not allowed near this site.

On Monday and Tuesday, journalists from two foreign news organizations were allowed access to the launch center. They are two journalists for The New York Times and a photographer for Japan’s Kyodo News. Each visitor was required to spend the first week sealed in an isolation room at a village hotel about 50 miles away and pass daily PCR tests. Foreign journalists paid for their travel, accommodation and quarantine.

The quarantine is part of a complex set of precautions aimed at preventing the Covid-19 virus from returning to the center of space. An outbreak last year interrupted work at the site for a short time.

Li You research contributions from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

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