A wide-angle camera shot of Shenzhou-23 docked at Tiangong, captured by an external panoramic camera on the Tianhe core module. Credit: CMSEO
HELSINKI — Three Chinese astronauts arrived at Tiangong space station Sunday, with one crewmember expected to become China’s first to stay in orbit for an entire year.
The Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft lifted off at 11:08 a.m. Eastern (1508 UTC; 11:08 p.m. Beijing time) May 24 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert.
The trio aboard were commander Zhu Yangzhu and astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying. Lai, a payload specialist formerly of the Hong Kong police force, is the first astronaut from Hong Kong to reach orbit. Zhu is a veteran of the 2023 Shenzhou-16 mission, while Zhang formerly served as a fighter pilot in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force.
One of Zhu or Zhang is expected to complete a continuous year in orbit, marking a first for Chinese human spaceflight. The China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) confirmed the plan during a press conference May 23 without confirming which astronaut would undertake the endeavor.
