Shenzhou-12: China launches its first manned space flight since 2016

A Chinese spacecraft will launch a Long March rocket from the Gobi Desert in the coming days and carry three men in an orbiting spacecraft for three months, marking the first time China has sent humans into space in nearly five years.

Shenzhou-12, which means “divine vessel,” will be the third of 11 missions needed to complete the Chinese space station by 2022. Among them, four missions with people on board, likely to propel up to 12 Chinese astronauts into space, more than the 11 men and women China has sent since 2003.

The spacecraft will also carry the hopes of some in the world’s most populous country.

“The homeland is strong,” one person wrote on Chinese social media, expressing best wishes to the crew of the Shenzhou-12. “The launch is a gift for the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party.”

Chinese astronauts had a relatively weak international reputation. A US law prohibiting NASA from contact with China means its astronauts have not been to the International Space Station, which is more than two decades old and has been visited by more than 240 men and women of various nationalities.

China, which aims to become a space superpower by 2030, became the second country to place a spacecraft on Mars in May, two years after the first spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon.

He also plans to send astronauts to the moon.

This time guys

The crew of the Shenzhou-12 will reside in Tianhe, “Harmony of Heaven”, a cylinder measuring 16.6 meters (55 feet) long and 4.2 meters (14 feet) in diameter.

The planned three-month stay will break the 30-day country record set by Chen Dong and Jing Haiping’s 2016 mission – China’s last manned flight – to a model station.

Three men from the First and Second Chinese Astronaut Groups will take part in the mission, Yang Liwei, director of China’s Aerospace Engineering Bureau and China’s first astronaut, told the official Global Times news agency last month.

Chinese space bloggers speculate that the astronauts will be Ni Hai Sheng – who at 56 will be the oldest Chinese astronaut to be sent to space, Deng Qingming, 55, and Ye Guangfu, 40.

Authorities typically don’t disclose the mission crew until after or near the launch date. China Manned Space did not respond to a Reuters fax request for comment.

John Glenn, the oldest human in space, was on the Space Shuttle in 1998 at the age of 77. After becoming the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, he was a United States Senator and presidential candidate.

Although no women are scheduled for the Shenzhou-12 mission, Yang told the Global Times that she is expected to participate in each subsequent mission.

Two women, Liu Yang and Wang Yaping, were selected from the second group in China in 2011, after the first group of 14 men in the mid-1990s. Liu was the first Chinese woman to reach space in 2012, while that Wang was the youngest in 2013 at 33.

China began construction of its space station in April with the launch of Tianhe, the first and largest of its three modules. This year, he wants to send a spacecraft to refuel robotic payloads and three other astronauts, this time for six months.