CHINA sent two astronauts into space yesterday to dock with an orbiting space lab, marking a crucial step toward the country’s ambition to build and operate its first space station by 2022.

    The launch of the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft, witnessed by a group of foreign and domestic media from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in western Gansu Province, is China’s third mission to space this year.

    At about 7:30 a.m. local time, mission commander and third-time visitor to space Jing Haipeng blasted off with novice astronaut Chen Dong. Over 100 different types of space food will be consumed while a range of technologies from exercise bicycles to broadband links will be used throughout the mission.

    General Zhang Youxia declared the launch “a complete success” at a press conference. The space agency said its equipment was working properly and is in good condition for the mission’s requirements.

    President Xi Jinping, in a congratulatory note read at the press conference, told Chinese media 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.”

    What is the mission?

    The two astronauts will stay in space for 30 days to test the complex’s ability to support human life. They will also conduct medical and scientific experiments. Advancing China’s space program is a priority for Beijing, with President Xi calling for the country to establish itself as a space power.

    Has China launched astronauts into space before?

    It is the sixth time China has launched astronauts into space. The duration of 30 days will be the longest among all of China’s manned missions to space. In a space mission in 2013, three Chinese astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked with a space laboratory, the Tiangong-1. The Tiangong-1 experimental space station launched in 2011 went out of service in March after docking with three visiting spacecraft and extending its mission for two years.

    When will the completed

    station begin operations?

    Following the attachment of two experiment modules, the completed station is set to begin full operations in 2022 and will run for at least a decade.

    What other advancements

    China is making towards space exploration?

    China’s space program also opened its massive fourth spacecraft launch site at Wenchang on China’s southernmost island province of Hainan in June. It was inaugurated with the launch of the newly developed Long March 7 rocket that was hailed as a breakthrough in the use of safer, more environmentally friendly fuels.

    China is currently developing the Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket needed to launch the Tiangong-2’s additional components and other massive payloads. China also plans to land a rover on Mars by 2020, attempting to recreate the success of the U.S. Viking 1 mission that landed a rover on the planet four decades ago. The country’s space program has a total of 20 missions planned for this year.

    (SD-Agencies)