China refreshes crew of its 'Celestial Palace' space station

Three taikonauts have successfully launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and are on their way to the Tiangong space station.

The mission crew was only announced yesterday, and is made up of experienced taikonaut Cai Xuzhe, 48, and two relative beginners: former Air Force pilot Song Lingdong, 34, and Wang Haoze, 34, the first female engineer to make the trip into orbit and the third female taikonaut. The Shenzhou 19 mission took off safely at 2027 UTC (0427 local time) and docked with the space station seven hours later.

"Like everyone else, I dream of going to the space station to have a look," Wang said at a press conference. "I want to meticulously complete each task and protect our home in space. I also want to travel in deep space and wave at the stars."

Three crew are already aboard Tiangong and have spent six months in orbit. The two crews will spend the next four days together before the departing trio return to Earth.

The new crew will conduct a series of spacewalks to install a debris shield around the fledgling station, and to launch cubesats. They'll also carry out experiments in microgravity, and lecture students on Earth. The Chinese worked with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs to decide what to try out in orbit.

"China's space station is an excellent platform for international collaboration," Lin Xiqiang, a spokesperson for the China Manned Space Agency, told state media. "No matter which country participates, it is humanity's collective quest to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos."

A cargo resupply mission next month will bring supplies that should suffice to keep the three taikonauts fed and watered until their planned April 2025 return.

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Tiangong is barely a third of the size of the International Space Station, and it's now hosted eight crews. Plans are afoot for expansion, as part of China's ambition to develop a crewed base on the Moon

That plan has alarmed NASA administrator Bill Nelson, who warned that the US is in a new space race and must prepare for the prospect that China might exercise lunar imperialism.

"We better watch out that they don't get to a place on the Moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, 'Keep out, we're here, this is our territory,'" he urged.

The Middle Kingdom is also moving ahead with space tourism – just like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Local startup Deep Blue Aerospace recently sold two tickets for a suborbital trip in the next few years for $140,000. ®