China will launch the Shenzhou-15 capsule from the Gobi Desert on Tuesday, carrying three taikonauts to the space station, which will remain there until May 2023. The Chinese sent the third segment of the Tiangong station into space in October, and it is planned to change the team of astronauts to the new station in six months.

The Long March 2F rocket was delivered on November 21 from the hangar to the launch pad (a journey of 1.5 km) and will be launched on November 29 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert.

This will be the first team of three taikonauts to go to a fully operational space station. The Chinese began assembling the station in the spring of 2021, and in July and October 2022 they sent two more modules of the Tiangong station, which should operate for at least 10 years. The new command replaces the one that was essential for connecting the modules sent from Earth.

The long-term plans include the arrival of cosmonauts from other countries, as well as space tourists, who will be ready to pay millions of dollars to the station. The station has three modules: Tianhe (the one where the astronauts live), Mengtian (the laboratory) and Wentian (required for extravehicular activities).

The Chinese, who sent the first man into space in 2003, have invested billions of dollars in the space program and made significant progress. In 2019, they installed a module on the far side of the moon, brought back samples of lunar soil, and landed a rover on the surface of Mars. China finished assembling the space station in October, and is also due to launch a space telescope near Tianjin in 2023.

Only two other countries have ever built space stations: the USA and the USSR.

Ten years ago, China decided to build its own space station after the US banned China from the ISS and all NASA projects.

Sources: Reuters, space.com