Published on: 10/29/2024 – 05:46

3 minutes

Tiangong’s new team will conduct experiments toward the space program’s ambitious goal of placing astronauts on the Moon by 2030 and, ultimately, building a lunar base.

The Shenzhou-19 mission is expected to take off with its trio of space explorers at 4:27 a.m. Wednesday (Tuesday 8:27 p.m. GMT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, the China Space Mission Agency said inhabited (CMSA).

Among the crew is Wang Haoze, 34, who is China’s only female spaceflight engineer, according to the agency. She will become the third Chinese woman to participate in a crewed mission.

“Like everyone, I dream of going to the space station to take a look,” Wang said at a press meeting Tuesday alongside his fellow crew members, lined up behind podiums and high windows to isolate them from the public.

“I want to meticulously complete every task and protect our home in space,” she said.

“I also want to travel into deep space and greet the stars.”

Led by Cai Xuzhe, the team will return to Earth “in late April or early May next year,” CMSA Deputy Director Lin Xiqiang said at another press event confirming the launch.

Cai, a 48-year-old former air force pilot, brings experience from a previous stint aboard Tiangong as part of the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022.

“Having been selected for the new crew, taking on a new role, facing new tasks and new challenges, I feel the honor of my mission with great responsibility,” Cai said.

The aerospace veteran added that the crew was now “fully prepared mentally, technically, physically and psychologically” for the upcoming mission.

Song Lingdong, 34, completes the list of astronauts.

The crew currently aboard the Tiangong space station is expected to return to Earth on November 4 after completing transfer procedures with the new astronauts, Lin said.

“Space dream”

China has stepped up plans to realize its “space dream” under President Xi Jinping.

The country’s space program was the third to put humans into orbit and has also landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon.

Made up of crews of three astronauts exchanged every six months, the Tiangong space station is the jewel of the program.

Beijing says it is on track to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030, where it intends to build a base on the lunar surface.

The Shenzhou-19 crew’s time aboard Tiangong will see them conduct various experiments, including some involving “bricks” made from components mimicking lunar soil, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

These items – which will be delivered to Tiangong by the Tianzhou-8 cargo ship in November – will be tested to see how they behave under extreme conditions of radiation, gravity, temperature and other conditions.

Due to the high cost of transporting materials into space, Chinese scientists hope to use lunar soil for the construction of the future base, CCTV reported.

The Shenzhou-19 mission aims above all to “accumulate additional experience”, explained to AFP Jonathan McDowell, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States.

While this particular exchange of astronaut crews and the upcoming six-month stay aboard Tiangong may not equate to major breakthroughs or feats, they are still “very valuable to do,” McDowell said.

Over the past decades, China has poured billions of dollars into developing an advanced space program, comparable to that of the United States and Europe.

In 2019, China successfully landed its Chang’e-4 probe on the far side of the Moon – the first spacecraft to do so. In 2021, he landed a small robot on Mars.

Tiangong, whose core module was launched in 2021, is expected to be used for about 10 years.

© 2024 AFP