A team of three astronauts, including China’s first civilian astronaut, arrived at the Tiangong Space Station. The Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 21:31 on 29 May. China’s manned spaceflight agency CMSA confirmed that the rendezvous and docking with the Tiangong radial docking port was completed at 04:29 on 30 May.

The crew of the six-month Shenzhou-16 mission included Jing Haipeng on his fourth visit to space, space flight engineer Zhu Yangzhu, and Beihang University professor Gui Haichao, payload specialist and the first Chinese civilian to travel into space.

Zhu and Gui are the first humans to fly into space from the third round of selection of Chinese astronauts selected in 2020. The successful launch of the mission also means 17 astronauts in orbit for the first time. The four-man Axiom-2 mission is scheduled to launch later on May 30 from the larger International Space Station.

At the time the report was presented, there were six Chinese astronauts in orbit, five Americans, three Russians, two Saudis and one UAE astronaut. In December 2021, 19 people were in space when the six-man crew of Blue Origin NS-19 briefly crossed the Karman Line and joined the crew on the ISS and Tiangong in space.

At the Tiangong space station, Jing, Zhu, and Gui will be met by the Shenzhou-15 crew. Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu have been conducting scientific experiments, outreach activities in Tiangong since November, breaking the national record with four off-board activities.

The arrival of Shenzhou-16 marks the beginning of the second transfer of the Tiangong crew, and we will see six astronauts at the orbital outpost. According to airspace closure reports, Shenzhou-15 crews are expected to land around 6:30pm on June 3.

This task was considered one of the most important for China. “The Chinese space station has entered the implementation and development phase. “Today, our ability to manufacture the Shenzhou spacecraft is not what it used to be,” He Yu, chief commander of spacecraft crew systems at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), told CCTV.

“Shenzhou-16 is the first of this group of six crewed spacecraft that we plan to build. After 30 years of effort, our ability to design, manufacture, experiment, including the organization of large-scale field experiments, has evolved into qualitative leaps.

Other CAST officials said more than 100 technical improvements and upgrades have been made over the previous Shenzhou spacecraft, including greater use of locally produced components. Diao Weihe, chief designer of CAST’s crewed spacecraft systems, said other plans are being developed to improve safety and reliability.

Shenzhou-16 astronauts will conduct a series of tests and experiments in orbit in various fields, including quantum phenomena, high-precision space-time frequency systems, validation of general relativity and the origin of life. The crew will also conduct spacewalks and maintenance, live lessons from space, and other operational activities.

Huang Weifeng, chief astronaut systems designer for China’s manned spaceflight program, also noted adaptations in astronaut training specifically designed to train space payload experts. On May 10, China launched the Tianzhou-6 cargo spacecraft into Tiangong to provide materials, scientific experiments, equipment and fuel to support the Shenzhou-16 mission.

The country aims to keep Tiangong constantly engaged and in orbit for at least a decade. It also plans to expand the space station with a “multifunctional module”. According to officials, the module will allow China to further increase the size of the space station and increase its power. CMSA also recently announced a tender for commercial solutions for cargo delivery to Tianjin. Other commercial and potential tourism activities are being evaluated.