UPDATE 2 - Chinese astronauts dock at space station, 2 crews meet

UPDATES WITH LATEST UPDATE OF CHINESE MANNED SPACECRAFT, CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Islamuddin Sajid and Alperen Aktas

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan / ANKARA, Türkiye (AA) – A Chinese spacecraft launched early Tuesday has successfully docked with the country’s Tiangong space station, space program officials said.

After docking at at 4:29 p.m. (0829GMT), the three astronauts on the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft –Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu, and Gui Haichao – will now enter the core module to meet three members of Shenzhou-15 crew, their predecessors at the station.

It was the fifth manned mission launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert in China’s Inner Mongolia region.

The “whole process took approximately 6.5 hours” from launch to docking with the space station, said the Chinese space station on Twitter.

Jing, a senior spacecraft pilot and commander of the module, is the first taikonaut – the local word for astronaut – to go into space for the fourth time.

In 2008, he took part in the Shenzhou-7 mission, and in 2012 and 2016, led two other Shenzhou crews.

Zhu has been assigned the role of a spaceflight engineer for the Shenzhou-16 mission. His responsibilities will include collaborating with Commander Jing to oversee the operation and maintenance of the spacecraft, as well as doing various technical tests.

Gui, the first civilian taikonaut and a professor at Beihang University in Beijing, will serve as a payload expert during his mission in Tiangong space station.

In this role, he will be responsible for managing and carrying out scientific experiments on board the space station.

Two new job descriptions are identified for the space program, aerospace engineers and payload specialists, said Gui.

This division of responsibilities enables “professionals to efficiently handle” their assigned tasks, guaranteeing the “safety and reliability” of numerous scientific payloads and experiments throughout extended space missions, he told state-owned outlet CTGN.

The Shenzhou-15 crew included three taikonauts: Fei Junlong, the mission commander, Deng Qingming, and Zhang Lu.

Last year, Beijing launched the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft on a Long March 2F rocket, carrying three crew members for a six-month stay on the space station.

After the successful flight on Tuesday, China has now at least six taikonauts in space.

The new taikonauts, aboard the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft, are expected to remain at the space station for about five months.

The Shenzhou-15 crew arrived in space last November, joining the three-member crew of the Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft – increasing the workforce at the in-orbit space station to six for the first time in Chinese space mission history.