EditorialTiangong a stepping stone to the future
- The space station will act as a laboratory and a halfway point for longer journeys as well as furthering China’s technology and promoting international collaboration
A new crew of astronauts has arrived at China’s space station for its most complicated manned mission yet – to put the finishing touch to the Earth-orbiting structure by the end of this year.
The trio are tasked to convert the Tiangong from being a single-module facility to a fully fledged space laboratory and docking station with three modules. They will prepare for the arrival of the two new modules where experiments in microgravity will be conducted in medicine and space and materials sciences by October.
The three astronauts – Cai Xuzhe, Chen Dong and Liu Yang – will rotate in six months, which doubles the length of stay of the last crew, with another three-member crew in December. It will mark the first time for the Tiangong to host six people at once before the current trio return to Earth.
Of particular note is the latest crew’s relatively young age; Cai is 45, and both Chen and Liu are 43. Previous space crews have been slightly older, with many in their early and mid-50s. The Chinese space command centre is run by plenty of young fresh faces too, making it literally a young science.
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China’s Shenzhou 14 mission begins mission to finish the Tiangong space station
Globally, national space programmes typically began with older astronauts because of their experience, usually as fighter pilots. But as the programmes mature, younger candidates begin to be selected.