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China to launch 3 astronauts to space station tonight - Space.com

China to launch 3 astronauts to space station tonight - Space.com

China to launch 3 astronauts to space station tonight - Space.com
Jun 16, 2021 1 min, 15 secs

EDT (0122 GMT and 9:22 a.m. Beijing time on June 17), Chinese space officials announced on Tuesday (June 15). .

Shenzhou-12 will launch atop a Long March 2F rocket and send three astronauts to Tianhe ("Harmony of the Heavens"), the core module of China's new space station.

Related: The latest news about China's space program.

The most recent Chinese crewed spaceflight, Shenzhou-11, launched in October 2016.

Shenzhou-12 is the third of 11 missions that will be required to complete the construction of China's new space station, Chinese space officials have said.

The Shenzhou-12 crew will perform a range of repair and maintenance activities during their three months aboard the 54-foot-long (16.6 meters) Tianhe, Chinese space officials have said.

"Astronauts coming out of the cabin will become a new routine, and the duration of such activities will be greatly expanded," Yang Liwei, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, told Chinese newspaper The Global Times last month, referring to the members of all four crewed missions that will visit the space station during its assembly phase.

The space station construction is part of a broader ramp-up for China's space program, which continues to operate a rover on the moon's far side and last month put a rover called Zhurong down on Mars. .

law has prohibited NASA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from cooperating with their Chinese counterparts on space activities, unless such cooperation has been approved in advance by Congress.

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