China successfully launched Shenzhou 14 crew to space.
On board with three taikonauts, Shenzhou-14 spacecraft will dock with Tiangong space station in 6.5 hrs, This launch marks the first crewed spaceflight for on-orbit space station construction.
At 02:44:06 UTC on June 5, 2022, the Long March 2F Yao 14 carrier rocket carrying the Shenzhou 14 manned spacecraft was ignited and launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. About 577 Seconds later, the Shenzhou 14 manned spacecraft was successfully separated from the rocket and entered the predetermined orbit. The flight crew; Chen Dong, Liu Yang, and Cai Xuzhe were in good condition and the launch was a complete success.
This is the 23rd flight mission since the establishment of China's manned space project, and the 3rd manned flight mission in the space station phase. After the spacecraft enters orbit, it will conduct autonomous and rapid rendezvous and docking with the space station assembly according to the predetermined procedure. The Shenzhou-14 craft is scheduled to, similar to the previous missions, conduct a fast and autonomic rendezvous and docking; It will pass 6.5 hours to complete 6 orbit changes within 3 laps, and reach the space station — 4.5 hours later, when the spacecraft nears the station— it will pass through the mid-aiming point and the series of waypoints to adjust the attitude to vertical flight and park at the radial (nadir) docking port under the space station.
In the follow-up, the astronauts will be stationed in the Tianhe core module to start a 6-month on-orbit residency, and carry out the maintenance and care of