First Crew Takes Off For China's Space Station

The first astronauts for China's new space station blasted off on Thursday for the country's longest crewed mission to date, a landmark step in establishing Beijing as a major space power.

The trio launched on a Long March-2F rocket for the Tiangong station, where they will spend three months, in a blast-off broadcast live on state TV.

Liftoff took place at 9.22 am local time from the Jiuquan launch centre in northwest China's Gobi desert, with the rocket rising in clouds of smoke against a blue sky.

After about 10 minutes it reached orbit and the space craft separated from the rocket, to loud applause in the control room among rows of blue-suited engineers.

At a ceremony before blastoff, the three astronauts already wearing their space suits greeted a crowd of supporters including family members and staff from the space station.

A crowd of space workers and their families had gathered for the ceremony and sang the patriotic song "Without the Chinese Communist Party, there would be no new China", waving Chinese flags and flowers.

Li Shangfu, commander-in-chief of China's manned space programme, wished good luck to the trio who saluted.

Ahead of the launch, state broadcaster CCTV showed a live feed from inside the spacecraft of the three astronauts waiting to launch, strapped into position and reading through some papers.

Their Shenzhou-12 spacecraft will dock with the Tianhe main section of the space station, which was placed in orbit on April 29.

The module has separate living spaces for each of them, a treadmill for exercise, and a communication centre for emails and video calls with ground control.

It is China's first crewed mission in nearly five years.

The launch represents a matter of huge prestige in China, as Beijing prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party on July 1 with a massive propaganda campaign.

To prepare for the mission, the crew has undergone more than 6,000 hours of training, including hundreds of underwater somersaults in full space gear.

The mission's commander is Nie Haisheng, a decorated air force pilot in the People's Liberation Army who has already participated in two space missions.

The two other members are also members of the military.

Over the next year and a half, another 11 missions are planned to complete the construction of Tiangong in orbit. The first crew will test and maintain the systems onboard, conduct spacewalks and undertake scientific experiments. (AFP)

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