China on Sunday launched the crewed spaceship Shenzhou-14, sending three astronauts to its space station combination for a six-month mission. The trio will cooperate with the ground team to complete the assembly and construction of the Tiangong space station, developing it from a single-module structure into a national space laboratory with three modules — the core module Tianhe and two lab modules Wentian and Mengtian. The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 10:44 a.m., according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). About 577 seconds after the launch, Shenzhou-14 separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit. The crewmembers are in good shape and the launch is a complete success, the CMSA declared. The crew will work with the ground team to complete the rendezvous, docking and transposition of the two lab modules with the core module, said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA, at a press conference Saturday. The Tianhe core module was launched in April 2021, and the Wentian lab module is set to be launched in July and Mengtian in October. The Shenzhou-14 crew will also witness, during their stay in orbit, the Tianzhou-5 cargo craft and Shenzhou-15 crewed spaceship dock with the core module. Then, they will live and work together with the Shenzhou-15 crew for multiple days before returning to Earth in December. The Chinese space station is at the altitude of about 400 kilometers and is intended to stay operational in orbit for more than 10 years. It's designed for three people. — WAM
