There are now two crewed space stations in orbit around Earth. This week China launched two astronauts to their Tiangong 2 space station, inhabiting it for the first time. Meanwhile, a Russian Soyuz rocket is carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) to complement the existing crew.
China’s launch is their first crewed mission for more than three years. It blasted off from the Jiuquan satellite launch center in the Gobi desert on 17 October at 0730 local time.
For commander Jing Haipeng, this is his third journey into space. His crew mate, Chen Dong, is on his first mission. They will stay on Tiangong 2 for a month conducting research.
Tiangong 2 was launched in September and serves as the final precursor to China’s multi-module space station, which is slated for launch in the 2020s.
The Russian launch to the ISS took place from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 19 October at 1405 local time. Unlike recent missions, which followed a six-hour rendezvous trajectory, this mission will dock after a two-day flight.
The extended time is to allow in-flight tests of the newly upgraded Soyuz capsule to take place. Commander Sergey Rizhikov was accompanied by flight engineer Andrey Borisenko and Nasa astronaut Shane Kimbrough.
They were due to dock with the ISS on Friday 21 October, joining American Kathleen Rubins, Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russian Anatoly Ivanishin. Four and a half months later, they will return to Earth.
One of their first jobs after docking will be to unload a cargo ship that is due to dock at the ISS on Sunday.
