Shenzhou-17 crew arrives at Tiangong

by Zlatan Bisercic - October 30, 2023

Source: China National Space Administration

Tiangong, a Chinese space station, has just received three new taikonauts (astronauts) following launch from the Gobi desert on Wednesday. Rendezvous and docking at Tiangong’s docking port was completed 6.5 hours later, at 5:46 a.m. on October 26. The Shenzhou-17 crew will be greeted by the Shenzhou-16 crew before they depart for Earth on October 31. The new trio will spend around 6 months aboard Tiangong. Shenzhou-17 is China’s 6th crewed mission to Tiangong, and the country’s 12th overall. They will perform maintenance tasks, conduct science experiments, and perform the first extravehicular activity to carry out experimental maintenance operations outside Tiangong, according to Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO), speaking at a press conference on October 25.
Speaking of Tiangong, China is now planning to expand Tiangong with the multipurpose module. This will allow further full-sized modules to dock with the orbital outpost. The agency also stated this year it would begin selecting international astronauts for visits to Tiangong. Also, China is planning to send a pair of taikonauts to the moon before 2030. Exciting times ahead!

We had only 1 successful launch last week, while the other was scrubbed, both from SpaceX using Falcon 9. The first launch saw Falcon 9 carrying 22 Starling satellites into orbit from Vanderberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday. After separating from the Falcon 9, B1075 booster safely landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific off shore of Baja California. The scrubbed launch had Falcon 9 with 23 Starlink satellites called off at T-30 seconds to lift-off. The launch team will target next launch attempt with a 24-hour recycle. If everything goes well, Starlink will have more than 5000 satellites in orbit by the of the day.

Keep looking up and see you next time!

Sources: SpaceNews, Universe Today, Spaceflight Now, Space.com, Space Daily, Wikipedia