Destination Moon: successful launch for Shenzhou-23.
On Sunday, China launched the crewed space mission Shenzhou-23 from the Jiuquan Cosmodrome in the northwest of the country, headed for the Tiangong space station. The country has been formally excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) since 2011, when the United States banned NASA from collaborating with Beijing, pushing it to develop its own space station project.
Moreover, the Chinese mission will send the first astronaut into orbit for a year, a fundamental step in Beijing’s plan to send humans to the Moon by 2030. It is one of the longest space missions ever, but shorter than the 14 and a half months record set by a Russian cosmonaut in 1995.
The identity of the astronaut who will remain in orbit for a year will be announced later, depending on the progress of the mission, the Chinese crewed space agency announced over the weekend. On board the spacecraft are commander Zhu Yangzhu, payload specialist Li Jiaying, and pilot Zhang Yuanzhi.
All the details.
SUCCESS FOR THE LAUNCH OF LONG MARCH 2-F
The Long March 2-F carrier rocket successfully took off on May 24 from the Jiuquan launch center in northwestern China, carrying the three astronauts to the Tiangong space station.
The Shenzhou-23 spacecraft was placed into orbit and the launch was “a complete success,” stated the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) in a press release.
WHAT THE SHENZHOU-23 MISSION WILL DO
The Shenzhou-23 mission will see the crew conduct a series of experiments in various fields, including life in space, medicine, human physiology, microgravity physics, and new technologies.
A key experiment will be the one-year stay in orbit of one crew member to study the effects of a long stay in microgravity, as part of China’s preparations for future lunar and potentially Martian missions.
THE OBJECTIVES
To AFP Richard de Grijs, astrophysicist and professor at Macquarie University in Australia, stated that the main challenges will concern the long-term effects on humans, including bone density loss, muscle atrophy, radiation exposure, sleep disorders, and behavioral and psychological fatigue. He also emphasized the importance of reliable water and air recycling systems and the ability to manage potential medical emergencies far from Earth.
The expert also highlighted that China is steadily gaining operational experience for the prolonged occupation of the Tiangong space station and that year-long missions represent an important step toward future lunar and potentially deep space ambitions.
“A year in orbit pushes both hardware and humans into an operational regime different from the shorter Shenzhou missions of earlier phases of the program,” he said.
So far, Tiangong crews tended to remain in orbit for six months before being replaced.
WHO WILL WIN THE RACE TO THE MOON
The Shenzhou-23 mission is part of China’s goal to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030, in a race against NASA’s Artemis program.
Over the past thirty years, China has significantly expanded its space program, investing billions of dollars to close the gap with the United States, Russia, and Europe. In 2019, Beijing achieved a world first by landing the Chang’e-4 probe on the far side of the Moon. Two years later, in 2021, China sent a rover to Mars.
Moreover, the head of NASA also supports the idea that the next humans to walk on the Moon could be Chinese.
Speaking at the Ascend conference on space technologies in Washington, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said: “The next time the world tunes in to watch astronauts fly around the Moon, probably in 2027, they will be taikonauts and America will no longer be the exclusive power capable of sending humans into the lunar environment.”
