China’s prestige space project
Taykonauts have to complete the “Heavenly Palace”.

6/5/2022 8:53 PM

With its own research center in space, China wants to catch up with other space nations. The People’s Republic is spending billions on this. The final stage of completing the “Heavenly Palace” has now begun.

In another historic Chinese space mission, three taikonauts have arrived at the Tiangong Space Station to finally complete their construction. As reported by Chinese state television, the astronauts arrived at China’s space station after a “seven-hour flight”. They took off in a Long March-2F rocket from Jiuquan Space Center in the Gobi Desert.

Taconauts are to expand to the space station during their six-month stay. The station should be fully operational by the end of the year. China wants to catch up with other space countries.

The Taikonaut team consists of two men and one woman. The commander is 43-year-old Air Force pilot Chen Dong. The other two members are Cai Xuze and Liu Yang. Three Taikonauts are supposed to connect the two modules of “Tiangong”. According to the state media, apart from the construction work, there are plans to do scientific experiments as well.

First “Tiangong”, then the moon

It was not until mid-April that the three Taikonauts returned to Earth from the “Tiangong” (“Heavenly Palace”). His six-month stay in space was the longest manned space mission ever in the People’s Republic. In addition to two field trips to work on the station, the Taykonauts – two men and one woman – used their stay on the space station for a number of scientific experiments and technology tests.

The “Tiangong” core module was launched in April last year. According to China’s plan, the space station will be used for at least a decade. In recent years, the People’s Republic has invested billions in its space programs to catch up with the United States and Russia. The Chinese government plans to send humans to the moon for the first time in 2029.