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China to Send 3 Astronauts to New Space Station

PHOTO STR, ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The three astronauts will take their seats aboard the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft, powered by a Long March 2F rocket.

(Jiuquan) China confirmed the launch on Thursday at 9:22 a.m. (1:22 a.m. GMT) of three astronauts to its under construction space station, for a first three-month mission.

The three astronauts, all three male, will take off from the Jiuquan base in the Gobi Desert (northwest), the Space Agency for Human Spaceflight (CMSA) announced at a press conference.

They will take place aboard the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft, powered by a Long March 2F rocket, which will dock at Tianhe ("Celestial Harmony"), the station's only module already in space.

At the end of April, Tianhe was placed in low-Earth orbit (at an altitude of 350-390 km), the control centre and the place where the astronauts live.

On board, the astronauts will not be idle: maintenance, installation of equipment, space trips, preparation of future construction missions and stays of future crews.  

The Shenzhou-12 mission is the third of the 11 launches that will be required to build the station between 2021 and 2022. A total of four manned missions are planned.  

In addition to Tianhe already in place, the two remaining modules – which will be laboratories – are expected to be sent into space next year.  

The latter will make it possible to carry out experiments in the field of biotechnology, medicine, astronomy or space technologies.

In a context of tension with the West, the success of the mission is a matter of prestige for Beijing, which is preparing to celebrate the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on 1 July.

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