China Launches Three Astronauts, Including First Civilian, Into Orbit
Mission to relieve space-station crew shows nation’s growing capability and drive to rival U.S. beyond Earth
SINGAPORE—China sent its first civilian astronaut into orbit Tuesday as part of a new crew for its space station, showcasing the nation’s expanding capabilities in space at a time when mounting military and technological competition with the U.S. is stoking geopolitical tension.
The rocket carrying the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft and its three crew lifted off from a launch site in northern China’s Gobi Desert in the morning, beginning a trip of more than six hours to the Tiangong Space Station. The mission is the first since China finished building and fitting out the permanently manned orbital base, and as it prepares to venture deeper into space, sending astronauts to the moon and a probe to Mars.
Washington sees Beijing’s space program as another front in the deepening rivalry between the two, and has restricted exports of some technology and parts to prevent China from gaining an edge. The U.S. is gearing up for a potential conflict in space and has been strengthening its deterrence against China. In March, the White House proposed a $30 billion annual budget for its Space Force, almost $4 billion more than the previous year.
China accuses the U.S. of trying to contain its rise by denying access to the latest technologies. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said that the “space dream is an important part of the dream to make China stronger,” while making a broad push for technological self-reliance. The country has invested heavily in its space program and has raced to build up a satellite-communications network. It has also developed ground-based missiles, lasers and more surveillance capabilities to deny adversaries access to space-based assets.
“Such demonstration of independent space capabilities adds to China’s great power status and as a rival alternative space power to the world,” said Namrata Goswami, an Alabama-based independent scholar on space policy.
Veteran astronaut Jing Haipeng, on his fourth mission, is accompanied by two first-timers, spaceflight engineer Zhu Yangzhu and payload specialist Gui Haichao, a professor at Beihang University in Beijing.
“We’re 20 years apart in age, which makes this a cross-generational team,” the 56-year-old Jing said Monday.
After a five-day handover, they will take over from the three crew members who have been aboard the Tiangong—which means “Heavenly Palace” in Chinese—since November. During their five-month mission, the newly arrived crew will conduct spacewalks, assist with the docking and departure of cargo and other spacecraft, and carry out scientific experiments.
The inclusion of a civilian dovetails with Beijing’s strategy of opening the space industry to the private sector, said Liu Bojian, a research assistant at the National University of Singapore who studies China’s activities in space. Previously, astronauts were all from the People’s Liberation Army’s Air Force.
“China is trying to make sure that in the next two decades it will have enough well-trained astronauts, both experienced and young, to prepare for even larger missions, such as landing on the moon, and even on Mars,” said Liu.
Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, said on Monday that China aims to put astronauts on the moon before 2030, as the space race with the U.S. heats up. The U.S. plans its first return to the lunar surface in more than five decades as early as 2025.
The U.S. and Chinese space programs have developed independently of each other. Since 2011, China has been excluded by U.S. law from working with NASA, and its astronauts are barred from the International Space Station. But China’s Tiangong could be the only space station in operation if its older counterpart is decommissioned as planned in 2030.
“China’s space program is integrated into its civil-military fusion strategy…[and it] plans to challenge U.S. dominance on the moon within this framework,” said Goswami, who is the co-author of “Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space.” She points to China’s goal to bring back samples from the lunar South Pole and to set up a permanent research base on the moon.
In preparation for the mission, the Chinese space agency said it is developing a new carrier rocket, spacecraft and spacesuit, as well as a lunar lander.