China’s Shenzhou 11 Blasts off on Space Station Mission

China’s Shenzhou 11 Blasts off on Space Station Mission

China has launched two men into orbit in a project designed to develop its ability to explore space.
The astronauts took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northern China.
They will dock with the experimental Tiangong 2 space lab and spend 30 days there, the longest stay in space by Chinese astronauts.
This and previous launches are seen as pointers to possible crewed missions to the Moon or Mars.
An earlier Tiangong – or Heavenly Palace – space station was decommissioned earlier this year after docking with three rockets.
The astronauts on this latest mission were Jing Haipeng, 49, who has already been to space twice, and 37-year-old Chen Dong.

The BBC’s Stephen McDonell was at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre to witness the take-off.
Chinese astronauts Jing Haipeng, right, and Chen Dong, left, wave farewell to the crowd before getting on Shenzhou 11 spacecraft at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on 17 OctoberImage copyrightAPImage captionThe astronauts Jin Haipeng (R) and Chen Dong will spend 30 days in space
From a remote launching station in Inner Mongolia I’m watching as a rocket tears through the sky. It will take the astronauts about two days to reach the orbiting laboratory where they will live for a month.
While on board the pair will carry out experiments including an examination of plant growth in space. They’ll also use ultrasound equipment to test their own bodies.
This mission is a source of considerable national pride here. So much so that even the foreign media has been allowed into this military base to view the launch.

The spacecraft, Shenzhou-11, took off from at 07:30 local time on Monday (23:30 GMT), lifted by a Long March-2F rocket.
The astronauts will spend the next month conducting experiments on the Tiangong 2.

China in space

in numbers

$2.2bn

China’s estimated annual spending on space programmes

  • 181 Chinese satellites in space
  • 11 Chinese people have travelled in space – often known as taikonauts
  • 2003 The year of China’s first crewed space mission
  • 2020 The year China plans its own space station
EPA
In a pre-mission interview with online portal China News, Mr Jin said: “There is definitely some pressure with this mission. I’ve even been dreaming about it at night.”
“I’m not thinking about the bouquets, the applause or the glory. What I’ve been thinking more about is whether I have grasped all the knowledge and skills, whether I have addressed the weak areas.”
China's Shenzhou 11 spaceship onboard a Long March-2F carrier rocket takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu province on Monday Oct. 17, 2016.Image copyrightAPImage captionThe Shenzhou-11 took off from China’s northern Gansu province on Monday morning
In a congratulatory statement to the astronauts carried by state media, President Xi Jinping said he hoped they “vigorously advance the spirit of space travel”.
He added that the mission would “enable China to take larger and further steps in space exploration, and make new contributions to building up China as a space power”.
China has poured significant funding and efforts into its space programme, and plans to launch at least 20 space missions this year.
A poster on a wall showing Chinese astronauts is seen at the venue of a farewell ceremony for astronauts before the launch of the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China, 17 October 2016Image copyrightEPAImage captionChina’s space programme has been given heavy publicity
A Chinese Long March 7 carrying the Tiangong 2 space station at launch in September 2016Image copyrightAPImage captionTiangong 2, a precursor to China’s permanent space station, was launched in September
It is only the third country – after Russia and the US – to carry out its own crewed missions. In 2013 it successfully landed its un-crewed Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, rover on the Moon.
It was excluded from the International Space Station due to concerns over the military nature of its space ambitions.
China has since embarked on plans to create its own permanent space station, expanding Tiangong 2 over the next few years by sending up additional modules. It is expected to be fully operational by 2022.
Authorities said last month that its predecessor, Tiangong 1, was due to crash back to Earth in 2017.
Courtesy : BBC