China's next human spaceflight mission is on its way into orbit.
A Long March 2F rocket topped with the Shenzhou 19 crew spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center today (Oct. 19) at 4:27 p.m. EDT (2027 GMT; 4:27 a.m. Oct. 30 Beijing time), rising into a night sky above the spaceport.
Aboard are commander Cai Xuzhe, 48, who was a member of the Shenzhou 14 mission, and rookie astronauts Song Lingdong, 34, a former air force pilot, and Wang Haoze, also 34, a spaceflight engineer.
Shenzhou 19 is scheduled to rendezvous and dock at the Tiangong space station around 6.5 hours after launch. The astronaut trio are set to spend six months in orbit aboard Tiangong, conducting a range of experiments and embarking on a number of extravehicular activities, or spacewalks.
Related: China's space station, Tiangong: A complete guide
Mission commander Cai has already spent 182 days in space and carried out spacewalks and will lead his younger counterparts.
"My two new teammates were both born in the 1990s. Although there is an age difference between us, we share the same goal: to serve our country and win honor for it while working and striving together," Cai said during a press conference on the day before launch.
"During the mission, we will undertake arduous tasks in space science experiments and space station management. I am mainly responsible for space experiment projects, material management, and station operation," Wang said at the press conference. "I believe that under the guidance of the mission commander and with seamless cooperation between us and the ground team, we will accomplish the mission successfully," she said.
"We will have a lot of extravehicular activities and new scientific experiments," Song said. Activities will include installing protective devices against space debris, and installing and recycling extravehicular payloads and equipment.
Lin Xiqiang, spokesperson for China's human spaceflight agency, CMSA, said the astronauts are scheduled to carry out 86 scientific experiments.
"During the Shenzhou 19 flight, the focus will be on the planned theme of 'biological and physical sciences in space,' covering fields such as space life science, basic physics of microgravity, space material science, space medicine and new space technologies," Lin said. These include structural analysis of protein crystal growth and non-equilibrium dynamics of soft matter under microgravity conditions.
Shenzhou 19 is the 33rd spaceflight mission under China's human spaceflight program. These missions include uncrewed test flights, crewed missions, launching Tiangong modules and smaller space lab precursor missions, next-generation crew spacecraft test flights, and Tianzhou cargo and refueling missions.
China is also preparing to send the Tianzhou 8 cargo spacecraft to Tiangong to resupply and refuel the station. It will also carry new experiments and possibly cubesats for deployment into orbit. That mission will launch on a Long March 7 rocket from the coastal Wenchang spaceport in November.
Meanwhile, the incumbent Shenzhou 18 crew aboard Tiangong are preparing for their departure. The trio of Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu, who arrived at Tiangong in late April, will hand over control of the space station to Cai, Song and Wang. Ye and his colleagues will return to Earth around 1:00 p.m. EDT on Nov. 3 (1700 GMT; or 1:00 a.m. Beijing time on Nov. 4), touching down at the Dongfeng landing area near Jiuquan.
Shenzhou 19 is China's eighth crewed mission to the Tiangong space station. The three-module, T-shaped orbital outpost was constructed via three Long March 5B launches across 2021 and 2022.
China intends to keep Tiangong, which is roughly 20% as massive as the International Space Station, permanently occupied and operational for at least a decade. The country also wants to expand the space station with new modules and open the outpost to commercial activities.
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