China launched this Sunday a rocket with three Chinese astronauts on board towards its space station, under construction, according to images broadcast by public television CCTV.
The Long March 2F rocket, with the Shenzhou-14 mission capsule, took off at 10:44 a.m. (03:44 a.m. in Lisbon) from the Jiuquan space center in the Gobi desert (northwest).
The objective of this mission is to complete work on the Chinese space station Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”), including the connection of two laboratory modules to the Tianhe module, launched in April last year.
China intends to finish construction of the station this year and officials had announced plans to send “two experimental modules, two manned spacecraft and two cargo spacecraft” to Tiangong.
The 70-tonne station is expected to remain in operation for 15 years, orbiting about 400 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.
The decision to build a space station came after the United States refused to allow China to participate in the International Space Station (ISS).
The Chinese space program put the first astronaut into orbit in 2003, making China the third country to do so, with its own resources, after the former Soviet Union and the United States.
The country has already landed probes on the Moon and Mars.
Source: Observadora
