BEIJING: With the objective of putting astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade, China on Tuesday launched a new three-person crew for its orbiting space station aboard the Shenzhou 16 spacecraft.
The manned Shenzhou 16 lifted off atop a Long March 2-F rocket just after 9:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) Tuesday from the Jiuquan launch center in northwestern China, on the edge of the Gobi Desert.
The mission of the crew, which includes China's first civilian astronaut, will overlap for a short period of time with the three astronauts now onboard the Tiangong station. The earlier crew is scheduled to return to Earth after completing their six-month mission in the space station.
In November last year, a third module was added to the station, with space program officials saying on Monday said that there are plans to expand it. They are also planning to launch a crewed mission to the moon before 2030.
China had built its own Tiangong space station after U.S. concerns over the links of the Chinese space programs with the People's Liberation Army led to its being excluded from the International Space Station. The PLA is the military branch of the ruling Communist Party in China.
China is the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S to launch its first manned space mission in 2003, which enabled it to put a person into space under its own resources.
Payload expert Gui Haichao, a civilian who is a professor at Beijing's top aerospace research institute, has joined this latest mission. He will join mission commander Maj. Gen. Jing Haipeng, who is making his fourth flight to space, and spacecraft engineer Zhu Yangzhu, the other two astronauts in the crew.
The crew is scheduled to stay aboard the station for around five months. During this time, they will conduct scientific experiments and regular maintenance work on the space station.
With the U.S. for reaching new milestones in space, this flight is against the background of a rivalry in space missions. Although the rivalry has been largely friendly, this also reflects their growing competition for leadership and influence in the technology, military and diplomatic fields.
In recent times, China has recorded milestones in some areas, like bringing samples back from the moon for the first time in decades and landing a rover on the far side of the moon, which is less explored.
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