Gui, a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics China, will “mainly be responsible for the on-orbit operation of space science experimental payloads,” a representative for the space agency told reporters. To this point, every single one of its astronauts has been a serving member of the People’s Liberation Army.
State media reports that Jing Haipeng, the mission’s commander on Tuesday, is making his fourth trip into space, and that Zhu Yangzhu, an engineer, is the third member of the crew.
China has spent billions on its military-run space programme in an effort to catch up to the United States and Russia, with aspirations to place astronauts on the moon by 2030.
Last year, China finished building Tiangong, its third and permanent space station. “Heavenly Palace” (Tiangong) is the name of the T-shaped construction that was completed in November. Its final module docked successfully with the central building.
According to Xinhua, the state-run news agency, the station is equipped with “the world’s first space-based cold atomic clock system” and other state-of-the-art scientific hardware.
An aspiration to keep humans in space for an extended period of time will be realised by keeping Tiangong in low Earth orbit between 400 and 450 kilometres (250 and 280 miles) for at least 10 years.
China’s crews of three astronauts will perform research and put new technologies through their paces.
China has declared it is open to foreign collaboration on Tiangong, but has no plans to use it for global cooperation on the magnitude of the International Space Station.
The scope of that collaboration is now unclear.
Since the United States stopped NASA from interacting with China in 2011, China has been effectively barred from the International Space Station.
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