China's Shenzhou XVI manned spacecraft and a Long March 2F Y16 rocket are being transferred to the launch area at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert on May 22, 2023. (PHOTO BY WANG JIANGBO / FOR CHINA DAILY)
The Shenzhou XVI crewed spaceship is scheduled to be launched at 9:31 am Tuesday (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
Chinese taikonauts Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu, and Gui Haichao will carry out the spaceflight mission, and Jing will be the commander, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced at a press conference on Monday.
The spacecraft will set out to transport the trio of the Chinese astronauts to the Tiangong space station.
This will be the fourth time for Jing to fly into space, making him the most experienced astronaut in China. He was involved in the Shenzhou VII mission in 2008 and commanded the Shenzhou IX and Shenzhou XI crews in 2012 and 2016, respectively.
Zhu and Gui are the first in the country's third-generation astronauts, whose selection was completed by September 2020, to engage in spaceflight.
Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao will carry out the Shenzhou XVI spaceflight mission, and Jing will be the commander, the China Manned Space Agency announced at a press conference on Monday
Zhu will serve as a spaceflight engineer in the Shenzhou XVI mission, while Gui, a professor from Beijing-based Beihang University, will work as a payload expert responsible for the in-orbit operations of science experiment payloads in the Tiangong space station.
In addition, Jing and Zhu are members of the People's Liberation Army's Astronaut Division. All of the three crew members hold a doctorate.
The Shenzhou XVI will be the first crew mission after China's space station program entered the stage of application and development.
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After the Shenzhou XVI spacecraft enters the orbit, it will activate the rapid rendezvous-docking mode to approach and connect with the radial port on the Tianhe core module, Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA, said at the press conference.
Jing's team will take over the Tiangong space station from their peers in the Shenzhou XV, mission commander Major General Fei Junlong, Senior Colonel Deng Qingming and Senior Colonel Zhang Lu, who arrived on Nov 30. By now, Fei's crew has stayed in orbit for six months.
The Shenzhou XVI astronauts will witness the dockings of the Tianzhou V cargo craft and the Shenzhou VII crewed spaceship, as well as the departures of the Shenzhou XV manned spaceship and Tianzhou V, Lin said.
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This undated file photo shows Jing Haipeng (center), Zhu Yangzhu (right) and Gui Haichao. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
The astronauts will conduct large-scale in-orbit tests and experiments in various fields as planned, he said.
They are expected to make high-level scientific achievements in the study of novel quantum phenomena, high-precision space time-frequency systems, the verification of general relativity, and the origin of life, said the official.
The Shenzhou XVI mission will also install electric propulsion cylinders and lift extravehicular cameras, he said.
The three astronauts will witness the dockings of the Tianzhou V cargo craft and the Shenzhou VII crewed spaceship, as well as the departures of the Shenzhou XV manned spaceship and Tianzhou V, said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency
The official added that the mission will carry out several spacewalks to maintain the massive orbital outpost and complete the installation of large extravehicular application facilities such as radiation biological exposure experiment equipment.
The trio will stay in orbit for about five months and is scheduled to return to Earth in November, Lin said.
China is also looking forward to and welcomes the participation of foreign astronauts in the country's space station flight missions, he said.
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On Sunday, this mission completed a final pre-launch rehearsal at the launch center.
The vessel, along with its carrier rocket, and all systems and preparations at the launch center are ready for the launch, said the launch center.
The Long March 2F rocket would start to be filled with propellants at the service tower on Monday morning, CMSA's Lin said.
Various inspections of the rocket and the spacecraft and pre-launch rehearsals have been conducted since the combination of the spaceship and the rocket transferred to the launch center, said He Pengju, a senior engineer at the launch center.
He added that the preparations include sealing facilities on the launch tower to prevent sand and rainwater from entering the rocket. It is in accordance with the sandy environment of the Gobi Desert, where the launch center is located.
A press conference on the Shenzhou XVI mission is held in Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on May 29, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
As of now, all of the Chinese astronauts who have been on spaceflights are members of the People's Liberation Army. They are the first two generations of astronauts who were selected from experienced Air Force aviators.
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The third generation of astronauts has civilians recruited from researchers and engineers.
There are 17 men and one woman in this generation in three groups: seven spacecraft pilots, another seven as spaceflight engineers and the last four as science payloads specialists.
Earlier this month, the Tianzhou VI robotic cargo spaceship set out from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province to transport materials for the next manned missions, becoming the first spacecraft to visit the Tiangong space station this year.
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Orbiting about 400 kilometers above the ground, the Tiangong currently consists of three major components, the Tianhe core module and Wentian and Mengtian science lab modules, and is connected with two visiting craft, the Shenzhou XV crew ship and the Tianzhou 6 cargo ship.
With Xinhua's inputs