The official news agency Xinhua said that China launched a rocket carrying three astronauts to the new space station on Saturday. This will be China’s longest manned mission to date, and this is the latest milestone for Beijing to become an alien power.
The trio was launched shortly after 1620 GMT from the Jiuquan Launch Center in the Gobi Desert in northwestern China on a Long March-2 F rocket. The team is expected to spend six months at the Tiangong space station.
The mission-twice as much as its 90-day predecessor-will set up equipment and test technology for future Tiangong construction.
Mission commander Zhai Zhigang, 55, a former fighter pilot who conducted the country’s first spacewalk in 2008, said the team will conduct “more complex” spacewalks than previous missions.
The astronaut team includes military pilot Wang Yaping, 41, who will become the first woman to visit the nation’s space station, after previously becoming China’s second woman in space in 2013.
Tiangong, meaning “heavenly palace”, is part of China’s heavily promoted space programme that has already seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the moon.
The first crew on the space station completed a record three-month mission to return in September.
