October 30, 2024
JIUQUAN SATELLITE LAUNCH CENTER – The rocket carrying the three-member crew of the Shenzhou XIX mission, China’s 14th manned spaceflight, lifted off early on Wednesday morning, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China’s Gobi Desert.
Illuminated by the dazzling flame produced by its engines, a 20-storey-tall Long March 2F carrier rocket roared to life at the scheduled ignition time of 4:27 am local time, and soared into clear dark skies.
Aboard the craft was its crew, mission commander Senior Colonel Cai Xuzhe, Lieutenant Colonel Song Lingdong, and Lieutenant Colonel Wang Haoze.
They are expected to fly for around six-and-a-half hours until they reach the Tiangong space station, currently orbiting about 400 kilometers above Earth, and their spaceship will then connect with the front port of the Tianhe core module, the main body of Tiangong.
The Shenzhou XIX team will then float into the space station to meet their Shenzhou XVIII mission peers, who have been in orbit for six months.
The crews will spend about four days together as the previous team hands over to the newcomers. Cai and his teammates will then take over Tiangong, and the Shenzhou XVIII crew will fly back to Earth on Monday.
The Shenzhou XIX team will be the eighth batch of inhabitants of the space station, which was completed in late 2022.
The three astronauts will perform a host of tasks include carrying out scientific experiments and technological demonstrations; conducting spacewalks to install space debris shield equipment and other external devices; retrieving instruments from outside the space station; and performing science lectures.
Their work will relate to multiple research disciplines such as microgravity physics, material science, space medicine, spacecraft technology and life science, said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency.
Cai was part of the six-month Shenzhou XIV mission that lasted from June to December 2022. For Song and Wang, this is their first extraterrestrial journey.
The launch saw Wang Haoze, 34, become the third Chinese woman to go into space, after Liu Yang and Wang Yaping, and also the first female spaceflight engineer.