BEIJING: China on Sunday launched its Shenzhou-23 mission, which will see a Chinese astronaut spend a full year in orbit for the first time, a crucial step in Beijing’s ambition to send humans to the Moon by 2030.
The long March 2-F rocket exploded in a cloud of flames and went up in smoke on time at 23:08 (1508 GMT) from the Jiuquan launch center in China’s northwestern Gobi desert, video from state broadcaster CCTV showed.
The mission marks the first ever spaceflight by a Hong Kong astronaut: 43-year-old Li Jiaying (Lai Ka-ying in Cantonese), who previously worked for the Hong Kong police.
Other crew members include 39-year-old space engineer Zhu Yangzhu and 39-year-old Zhang Zhiyuan, a former air force pilot who is traveling into space for the first time.
The crew will carry out numerous scientific projects in life sciences, materials science, fluid physics and medicine.
A key experiment of Shenzhou-23 will be a year-long stay in orbit by one of the crew to study the effects of a long stay in microgravity.
Annual experiment
The experiment is part of China’s preparations for future lunar missions, as well as missions to Mars.
The astronaut selected for this one-year mission will be named at a later date, depending on the progress of the Shenzhou-23 mission, a spokesman for the China Space Agency (CMSA) said on Saturday.
The biggest challenges will be long-term effects on humans, including loss of bone density, muscle wasting, radiation exposure, sleep disturbances, behavioral and psychological fatigue, said Richard de Grijs, an astrophysicist and professor at Macquarie University in Australia.
He also emphasized the importance of reliable water and air recycling systems, as well as the ability to handle potential medical emergencies far from Earth.
China is building “solid” operational experience for “sustained occupation” of its Tiangong space station, and year-long missions are an important step toward future lunar and potentially deep space ambitions, de Grijs told AFP.
“A year in orbit pushes both hardware and humans into a different operational regime compared to the shorter Shenzhou missions in the earlier phases of the program,” he said.
Crews aboard Tiangong have so far largely been in orbit for six months before being replaced.
The Shenzhou-23 mission is part of China’s goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by 2030, a race in which the United States is also competing with its Artemis program.
Pakistani crew members
China is testing the equipment required for its goal with an orbital test flight of its new Mengzhou spacecraft set for 2026.
The Mengzhou craft will replace the aging Shenzhou line and will carry China’s astronauts to the Moon.
Beijing hopes to have built the first phase of a manned science base by 2035, known as the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).
China also plans to welcome its first foreign astronaut from Pakistan aboard the Tiangong station before the end of this year.
The Asian giant has expanded its space programs significantly over the past 30 years, injecting billions of dollars into the sector to catch up with the US, Russia and Europe.
In 2019, China landed a spacecraft, the Chang’e-4 probe, on the other side of the Moon – a world first.
Then in 2021 it landed a small rover on Mars.
China has been formally barred from the International Space Station (ISS) since 2011, when the US banned Nasa from cooperating with Beijing, prompting the Asian giant to develop its own space station project.
