China Shenzhou XV crew set out for the Tiangong space station

Tiangong space station — Tuesday night saw the crew of China’s Shenzhou XV mission, the nation’s tenth human space voyage, begin its ascent to the Tiangong space station.

The Shenzhou XV spacecraft was successfully launched into orbit at 11:08 p.m. local time by a 20-story-tall Long March 2F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gobi Desert.

Engineers outfitted the rocket and its support tower with a variety of cold-proof materials because this was the first time an astronaut-carrying rocket was launched in sub-zero conditions.

The nine crewed flights that came before this one were all launched between June and October.

The eight-ton spacecraft was scheduled to approach and dock with the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong station hours after launch.

Senior Colonel Deng Qingming, Senior Colonel Zhang Lu, and Major General Fei Junlong, the mission commander, would open a hatch after docking with the core module and then float into the Tianhe module to meet their counterparts from the Shenzhou XIV mission, Senior Colonel Chen Dong, Senior Colonel Liu Yang, and Senior Colonel Cai Xuzhe, who has been in space for almost six months.

Before Tuesday’s launch, the Shenzhou XIV crew sent Fei’s team a video in which Chen, Liu, and Cai could be seen wearing pullovers that said in Chinese, “Old Friends Are Coming,” and expressing their excitement for the Shenzhou XV crew’s arrival.

We will give you a hearty embrace as soon as we meet, Liu and Cai said.

After 17 years, mission commander Fei is back in space with the Shenzhou XV. In October 2005, the 57-year-old was a crew member of the Shenzhou VI.

Deng, 56, and Zhang, 46, are both making their first trips into space. Zhang was the only second-generation astronaut without prior spaceflight experience, while Deng is the only surviving member of China’s first batch of astronauts to have flown in space.

Six Chinese will be in space simultaneously for the first time thanks to their arrival. There have only ever been a maximum of three Chinese astronauts in orbit.

Fei’s crew will do three to four spacewalks to attach equipment outside the station throughout the course of the six-month Shenzhou XV mission. According to mission authorities, their main responsibilities will also include opening, setting up, and testing 15 science cabinets, carrying out more than 40 scientific experiments and technical displays, and performing six cargo orbital deployment procedures.