HONG KONG– Thirteen years after previous fighter pilot Liu Boming participated in Chinas first spacewalk, the 54-year-old astronaut was sent into space once again Thursday early morning to notch another turning point as part of the very first objective to staff the countrys new spaceport station.
Mr. Liu and 2 other former members of the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force blasted off aboard Shenzhou-12–“Divine Vessel” in Chinese– with a Long March-2F carrier rocket from a launch center in northwest China.
The spaceship docked hours later with the already orbiting Tianhe module and the astronauts will invest three months there, including two scheduled spacewalks.
Before the launch, the astronauts were escorted by a motorcade down an opportunity lined with Chinese national flags to the launchpad in the Gobi Desert on a clear-sky morning.
Their mission comes as China undertakes increasingly vibrant endeavors in area and days before the nation celebrates the July centenary of the founding of its ruling Chinese Communist Party. Chinas astronauts are being feted as heroes by state media as symbols of Chinas quickly advancing space program, which is promoted as a source of nationwide pride.