BEIJING (AP) — China will launch three more to its newest space station in June after its newest astronaut returned after a six-month stay in orbit last weekend, an official said on April 17. astronaut.
The crew of the Shenzhou 14 capsule will spend six months aboard Tiangong adding two modules to the space station, Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, said at a news conference.
China’s ambitious space program sent its first astronaut into orbit in 2003, a robotic rover to the moon in 2013 and Mars last year. Officials discussed a possible manned mission to the moon.
Tiangong’s core module, Tiangong, will be launched in April 2021. Plans call for construction to be completed this year.
Hao said that the Wentian module will be launched in July, and the Mengtian module will be launched in October.
As the Shenzhou 14 crew’s mission draws to a close, Shenzhou 15 will launch three more astronauts for a six-month stay, Hao said. He added that the two crews would overlap for three to five days, and it was the first time six people had boarded at the station.
On April 16, the Shenzhou 13 crew landed in the Gobi Desert in northern Inner Mongolia.
During the mission, astronaut Wang Yaping conducted the first spacewalk by a Chinese woman. Wang Jun, commander Zhai Zhigang and teammate Ye Guangfu also taught physics lessons to high school students.
China is the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to send astronauts into space on its own. Tiangong is China’s third space station, following its predecessors launched in 2011 and 2016.
The government announced in 2020 that China’s first reusable spacecraft had landed after a test flight, but no photos or details have been released.
China has been excluded from the ISS because of U.S. concerns that its space program is being run by the People’s Liberation Army, the military arm of the ruling Communist Party.
