Baku, April 26, AZERTAC
China’s latest crew of three astronauts arrived at the Tiangong space station Thursday following launch from Jiuquan spaceport in the Gobi Desert, according to Space News.
The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft completed rendezvous and docking with Tiangong’s radial docking port at 3:32 p.m. Eastern (1932 UTC), April 25, China’s human spaceflight agency announced shortly after the event.
The Shenzhou-18 astronauts—commander Ye Guangfu and rookies Li Cong and Li Guangsu—will soon be greeted aboard Tiangong by the Shenzhou-17 crew upon opening of the hatch.
The latter crew, consisting of Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin, have been operating Tiangong since late October 2023. The trio are set to return to Earth early April 30 after handing over control of the station to the incoming Shenzhou-18 astronauts.
Shenzhou-18 launched earlier Thursday. Long March 2F rocket topped with Shenzhou-18 lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 8:59 a.m. Eastern (1259 UTC). The spacecraft separated from the upper stage around 10 minutes later.
Shenzhou-18 is China’s seventh crewed mission to Tiangong and the country’s 13th human spaceflight mission overall. The Shenzhou-18 mission will last roughly six months and be resupplied by the Tianzhou-8 spacecraft around August.
The crew will carry out more than 90 experiments, two to three extravehicular activities, and implement six cargo outbound deliveries via the station’s cargo airlock during their mission.
China approved its space station plan in 1992 and began building the three-module, T-shaped low Earth orbit outpost in 2021. Commander Ye was one of the first visitors to the under-construction space station on the 2021-2022 Shenzhou-13 mission.