China sends a manned flight to its space station again

The Chinese Shenzhou-13 rocket was successfully launched on Friday with three astronauts, including a woman on board, towards the Tiangong space station, China for the “Sky Palace”. Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu took off at 6:23 p.m. (00:23 a.m. local time) on Friday. They will stay in space for six months, a record for China.

The three astronauts, as the Chinese astronauts are called, can be seen through a camera in the cockpit. A camera was also placed on the outside of the Shenzhou-13, which clearly showed the launch process. Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng attended the departure.

The three astronauts will return to Earth in April next year. Until then, they will work on the Chinese space station. The “Heavenly Palace” now consists of a tube 16 meters long and 4 meters wide. Two more parts will be sent to the space station next year. They are called Wentian (Search for Heaven) and Mengtian (Dreams of Heaven).

China is particularly ambitious. The country first flew a person into space in 2003. It was the third country to do so after the Soviet Union/Russia and the United States.

The country also successfully landed an unmanned spacecraft on Mars earlier this year. In 2019, China was the first to land on the far side of the moon. Other countries prefer to do such projects with others, but China prefers to work alone.