Shenzhou-21 crew enter space station begin in-orbit handover
發佈日期: 2025-11-01 20:33
TVB News
Shenzhou-21's crew were welcomed on to China's space station after a record-breaking docking and boarding process.
Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie waiting onboard the Tiangong space station.
Getting ready to welcome the docking Shenzhou-21 crew.
Three and half hours after being launched the docking was complete setting a new record from earth to destination.
A flawless pinpoint procedure, guided by Beijing's Aerospace Control Centre
Mission control said."The docking of the spaceship with the space station have been locked - rendezvous and docking normally completed".
Just hours earlier, the astronauts had been on a bus taking them to the launch site in northwest China, waving to the crowds and to the cameras.
The three, led by commander Zhang Lu, who had previously been on Shenzhou-15, were soon put into the spacecraft preparing for blast off.
The other two crew are payload specialist Zhang Hongzhang and engineer Wu Fei.
Wu, originally from Inner Mongolia, becomes China's youngest taikonaut at the age of thirty-two.
At sixteen minutes to midnight, the Long March 2F carrier rocket blasted off carrying the trio into the night sky and then into orbit.
After ten minutes Shenzhou-21 separated from the rocket entering its designated orbit.
The crew on their way to the space station four hundred and twenty-five kilometres from earth.
The seventh mission there since it was completed three years ago.
At three-twenty-two the vehicle docked with Tiangong and then at two minutes to 5 this morning the hatch was opened as new arrivals climbed aboard what will be their home for the coming weeks.
Just over five hours after being on the ground in China the trio were inside the space station.
Incoming commander Zhang congratulated his opposite number, Chen Dong and partners, for all their hard work over the previous weeks.
Smiles and embraces as the sitting crew welcomed "friends from earth".
"It felt heartwarming and amazing to have the family welcoming us," relative youngster Wu said on his history making morning, adding he now has to quickly get used to living in space.
They posed for a snapshot ahead of a handover that will take about five days.
