Chinese astronauts enter space station on six-month Shenzhou 14 mission

Spacecraft launched from Inner Mongolia at 10.44am on Sunday and docks with the Tianhe core module almost 7 hours later

The crew includes Liu Yang, the first Chinese woman in space, along with experienced astronaut Chen Dong and pilot Cai Xuzhe, who is on his first trip to space

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The crewed spaceship Shenzhou 14, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, is launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China on June 5, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 10:45am, 5 Jun 2022Updated: 9:33pm, 5 Jun 2022

China’s Shenzhou 14 spacecraft docked with the Tiangong space station late Sunday afternoon, the start of a six-month mission for three astronauts to oversee the final stages of the space station’s construction.

The craft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert in northern China at 10.44am and docked with the station’s Tianhe core module – 400km (248 miles) above the ground – at 5.42pm, a journey of almost seven hours. Control centre staff applauded as the spacecraft connected with the Tianhe module.

After docking, the astronauts took three hours to open four hatches and enter the space station.

China Manned Space Agency announced about 20 minutes after take-off that the launch of Shenzhou 14 was successful. It said the manned spacecraft separated from the rocket and entered the predetermined orbit 577 seconds after launch, adding that the crew were in good condition.

The Shenzhou 14 launch was successful, the China Manned Space Agency reported 20 minutes after take-off. Photo: CCTV

The crew includes Liu Yang, who became the first Chinese woman in space as part of the crew for the Shenzhou 9 mission in 2012. She spent 13 days in the nation’s first space laboratory, Tiangong 1, where she was in charge of medical experiments. This will be the 43-year-old’s second mission into low-Earth orbit.

Also on board are Chen Dong, who is also 43 and spent 33 days at the country’s second space lab, Tiangong 2, during the Shenzhou 11 mission in 2016; and Cai Xuzhe, a pilot who joined China’s space programme in 2010 but has never been to space before.