When China\u2019s first astronaut Yang Liwei blasted off into space in 2003, it was a history making moment that declared his country\u2019s arrival as an emerging space power. <\/p>\n
Two decades on, China has become a major presence in space \u2013 a status that mirrors its growing economic, political and military ascendency on Earth. It now has its own permanent outpost in orbit \u2013 a fully operational space station \u2013 and routinely rotates crews to live and work there. <\/p>\n
On Thursday, three Chinese astronauts lifted off on the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft from the\u00a0Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center\u00a0deep in the Gobi Desert, heading for the Tiangong space station for a six-month stay. <\/p>\n
They are the youngest crew China has ever sent to space \u2013 with an average age of 38. Among their tasks on board is to repair the solar panels that were damaged by space debris \u2013 the first time Chinese astronauts will carry out repair work outside the station. <\/p>\n
This is China\u2019s sixth manned mission to its space station since 2021. The new crew will take over from the\u00a0Shenzhou-16 astronauts, who have been onboard since May. <\/p>\n
Before the launch, the crew was sent off in full pageantry, greeted by government officials and supporters lining the road. The three astronauts waved at the crowd, who held up Chinese flags and flowers. A band played patriotic songs and the crowd sang along. <\/p>\n
Since his own trip to space, Yang has sent off many Chinese astronauts on their missions. But Thursday\u2019s launch was especially emotional, coming just days after the 20th anniversary of his own historic flight. <\/p>\n
Completed late last year, the Tiangong \u2013 or \u201cheavenly palace\u201d in Chinese \u2013 is one of the two space stations currently in orbit. With a lifespan of 15 years, it could become the only one left when the NASA-led International Space Station (ISS) retires in 2030. <\/p>\n
China has already announced plans to expand the Tiangong in coming years, adding three modules to its existing three to allow more astronauts to stay abroad at the same time. Currently, it can house a maximum of three astronauts, compared with seven at the ISS. <\/p>\n
Yang said he was thrilled to see a younger generation of Chinese \u201ctaikonauts\u201d taking up the baton. \u201cIn them, I see the strength of our reserve force, and the hope for the future development of China\u2019s aerospace industry,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Two of the Shenzhou-17 crew members \u2013 Tang Shengjie, 33, and Jiang Xinlin, 35 \u2013 are new comers, having joined China\u2019s third batch of astronauts only a little over three years ago. <\/p>\n
They are led by Tang Hongbo, 48, who hails from the country\u2019s second batch of astronauts. <\/p>\n
Tang, a former fighter jet pilot, was on China\u2019s first crewed mission to its space station in 2021. His return to the Tiangong also set a new record for the shortest interval between two spaceflight missions by Chinese astronauts. <\/p>\n
Tiangong has become a symbol of China\u2019s ambition and capabilities in space, after Chinese astronauts were shut out of the ISS, a US-led collaboration with Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, for more than two decades. <\/p>\n
Since 2011, NASA has been effectively banned from cooperating with China, after Congress passed\u00a0the Wolf Amendment\u00a0due to espionage-related concerns. That exclusion has at least in part spurred Beijing to build its own space station. <\/p>\n
China has sought to open up its station to collaboration with international partners, including by hosting experiments from other countries. And that offer will be all the more appealing after the ISS retires, which is scheduled around 2030. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe other nations that participate in spaceflight, particularly human spaceflight, they\u2019ve been talking to China. And so if they\u2019re the only game in town, that\u2019s the only way that these companies or these countries can participate in human spaceflight, until we get these commercial space stations that are partially funded by NASA into orbit and operational,\u201d Chiao said. <\/p>\n
Beijing for years has been leveraging its rising prowess as a global space power to offer partnerships and development opportunities to other countries. <\/p>\n
As China and the United States intensify their economic, technological and geopolitical rivalry on Earth, space has become a natural extension \u2013 and crucial frontier \u2013 in their great power competition. <\/p>\n
Following the demise of the Soviet Union\u2019s space program, the US has enjoyed a period of unparalleled leadership in space. But in recent years, US\u00a0observers\u00a0and\u00a0politicians\u00a0have warned that America\u2019s dominance could soon be challenged by China\u2019s fast-growing space capabilities. <\/p>\n
That concern has only deepened with a series of important and high-profile Chinese achievements. <\/p>\n
In 2019, China became the first country to land on the far side of the moon. A year later, it successfully put into orbit its final Beidou satellite, setting the stage to challenge the US Global Positioning System (GPS). And in 2021, it became the only country after the US to put a functioning rover on Mars. <\/p>\n
China\u2019s ambitions do not end there. Next year, it plans to bring back the first samples ever collected from the moon\u2019s far side. By the end of this decade, it wants to send astronauts to the moon and build an international lunar research station. A number of countries have reportedly joined onto its planned lunar station, including Russia, Venezuela and South Africa. <\/p>\n
Chiao, the retired NASA astronaut, said the main challenge now facing China\u2019s space program is to get the operational experience that an organization like NASA has. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been operating spacecraft, space shuttle, space station for decades. And we have so much experience and know-how on training astronauts on operating in space \u2013 and that\u2019s where they\u2019re playing catch up,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n
When China\u2019s first astronaut Yang Liwei blasted off into space in 2003, it was a history making moment that declared his country\u2019s arrival as an emerging space power. Two decades on, China has become a major presence in space \u2013 a status that mirrors its growing economic, political and military ascendency on Earth. It now <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}