China will send three astronauts on a six-month mission to the space station, which is still under construction 

*Paromita Das

In June, China will launch its third crew mission to its under-construction space station, Tiangong, with three taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) strapped into the Shenzhou 14 capsule.

According to Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, the crew of the Shenzhou-14 capsule will spend six months on the Tiangong preparing it for future science operations by adding two modules. The Shenzhou-14 mission will be followed by a six-month mission launch.

The two crews would work together for three to five days, marking the first time the station had had six people aboard.
The two crews would work together for three to five days, marking the first time the station had had six people aboard. The Wentian module, which is scheduled to launch to the under-construction space station in July, will be integrated into the Shenzhou-13 mission. Meanwhile, in October, Beijing will launch the Mengtian module.

China’s ambitious space programme launched its first astronaut into orbit in 2003, followed by the landing of robot rovers on the moon in 2013 and Mars last year. A crewed mission to the moon has been discussed by officials. The Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, core module, was released in April 2021.
The Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, core module, was released in April 2021. The Chinese space agency intends to complete construction of its flying outpost by the end of this year in order to compete directly with the International Space Station.

After landing at the Dongfeng landing site, Chinese astronaut Ye Guangfu sits outside the return capsule of the Shenzhou-13 manned space mission.

When completed with the addition of two more sections, dubbed Mengtian and Wentian, the station will weigh approximately 66 tons, making it much lighter than the International Space Station, which launched its first module in 1998 and weighs approximately 450 tons.

The most recent update comes just days after China successfully returned its second crew mission from the space station to Earth.
The crew of the Shenzhou 13 landed in the Gobi desert in Inner Mongolia’s northern region.

During the mission, astronaut Wang Yaping performed the first Chinese woman’s spacewalk. Wang, commander Zhai Zhigang, and crewmember Ye Guangfu also transmitted physics lessons to high school students. The “technology verification phase” of the space station project has concluded with the completion of the Shenzhou-13 mission.

After the former Soviet Union and the United States, China was the third country to launch an astronaut into space on its own.
Tiangong is China’s third space station, having launched its predecessors in 2011 and 2016. The Chinese government announced in 2020 that China’s first reusable spacecraft had landed after a test flight, but no photos or details were provided.