China: successful takeoff for "Shenzhou-14" which flies to the Chinese space station

The "Long March-2F" carrier rocket carrying the Chinese "Shenzhou-14" spacecraft takes off from the launch pad in Jiuquan, northwest China, on June 5.

© AP - Li Gang

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

Successful takeoff for the

mission , the " 

 " in Chinese.

The 3 taikonauts who boarded the

rocket this morning in northwestern China, must contribute to the completion of the construction of the Chinese space station.

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With our correspondent in Beijing

,

Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe, the 3 taikonauts of this Shenzhou mission, 14th of the name, were entitled to the military salute and the brass band during the traditional ceremony before take-off this morning on the site 901 of the "base 20" of the People's Army.

The Jiuquan launch pad is also used to launch satellites.

space lab

At 10.44 a.m. sharp, China Central Television broadcast

.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1!

rocket

soars into the cloudless blue sky of Inner Mongolia province, before the

spacecraft separates from the booster.

Successful launch, applause, as for previous missions.

This new success took place in front of an

,

and, more broadly, enjoys extensive

.

But the work has only just begun for the space trio, which will remain in weightlessness for six months, in order to transform "Tiangong", the Chinese space station into a laboratory.

The crew is experienced: Chen Dong is a veteran of

,

is the first Chinese to have been sent into space during the

mission , Cai Xuzhe, on the other hand, is making her first spacewalk today. of the earth's atmosphere.

More complicated than hotel check-in

Concretely, the objective is to help with the assembly of two new modules,

and

, which should arrive next July and October, to therefore hang on to the central module (

) whose construction began in April 2021. To do this, it will first be necessary to dock the

, inspired by the Russian

, at the station  .

“ 

 ,” said a commentator on CCTV this morning.

And once the work is completed, "Tiangong" could be the only station to remain in orbit, following the withdrawal of the ISS in the coming years.

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