spacetoday.net: China launches Shenzhou-15 crewed mission to space station

China launches Shenzhou-15 crewed mission to space station

Posted: Sat, Dec 3, 2022, 10:29 AM ET (1529 GMT)
Long March 2F launch of Shenzhou-15 (Xinhua)

China launched three astronauts to the country's space station Tuesday. The Shenzhou-15 spacecraft launched at 10:08 am EST (1508 GMT) on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and docked with the Tiangong space station six and a half hours later. Astronauts Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu entered the station a couple hours later, greeted by the Shenzhou-14 crew of Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe, who have been on the station for six months. This is the first direct handover between space station crews and marks the start of science operations on Tiangong, which carries 24 experiment cabinets and a payload airlock.