China launches three astronauts to its space station

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(30 May 2023)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, Inner Mongolia - 30 May 2023
1. Various of rocket being launched

HEADLINE: China launches three astronauts to its space station

ANNOTATION: "China launched a new three-person crew for its orbiting space station, the crew includes China’s first civilian astronaut."

ANNOTATION: "China’s space program officials said they have plans to send astronauts to the moon before 2030 and expand the country’s orbiting space station."

ANNOTATION: "The Shenzhou 16 spacecraft lifted off Tuesday from the Jiuquan launch center in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket."

2. Various of three Chinese astronauts waving hands

ANNOTATION: "The crew will overlap briefly with three now aboard the Tiangong station, who will then return to Earth after completing their six-month mission."

3. Spectators waving flags

ANNOTATION: "China built its own space station after it was excluded from the International Space Station."
STORYLINE:
China launched a new three-person crew for its orbiting space station on Tuesday, with an eye on sending astronauts to the moon before the end of the decade.

The Shenzhou 16 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan launch center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket just after 9:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) Tuesday.

The crew, including China’s first civilian astronaut, will overlap briefly with three now aboard the Tiangong station, who will then return to Earth after completing their six-month mission.

A third module was added to the station in November, and space program officials on Monday said they have plans to expand it, along with launching a crewed mission to the moon before 2030.

China built its own space station after it was excluded from the International Space Station, largely due to U.S. concerns over the Chinese space programs’ intimate ties with the People's Liberation Army, the military branch of the ruling Communist Party.

China’s first manned space mission in 2003 made it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space under its own resources.

On this latest mission, payload expert Gui Haichao, a professor at Beijing’s top aerospace research institute, joins mission commander Maj. Gen. Jing Haipeng, who is making his fourth flight to space, and spacecraft engineer Zhu Yangzhu.

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