China on Tuesday launched a mission to the Tiangong space station with three astronauts, marking a milestone in the country’s space conquest and highlighting the inclusion of a civilian in the crew for the first time. This mission is part of China’s long history of space exploration, which began more than 60 years ago under the leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong.
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, prompting Mao Zedong to urge Chinese citizens to make their own satellites. In 1970, China achieved its first milestone by launching its first satellite, the Dongfanghong-1, whose name means “Red East” and is a reference to a song dedicated to Mao. This event was followed by the launch of China’s first astronaut, Yang Liwei, in 2003, making China the third country to send a human being into space on its own after the Soviet Union and the United States.
China has also made progress in building its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) program. In 2011, they launched the Tiangong-1 space module, which served as a training platform for astronauts and a medical experiment. Although Tiangong-1 ceased operations in 2016, it laid the foundation for the development of the Chinese space station. In 2022, the last module of the Tiangong space station was completed, which will house rotating crews of three and conduct advanced scientific research.
China has also carried out successful missions on the Moon, such as sending the remote-controlled robot “Jade Rabbit” in 2013 and landing on the far side of the Moon in 2019. In addition, they have developed their own satellite navigation system, the Beidou, as a competitor to the US GPS. In July 2020, China sent the “Tianwen-1” probe to Mars, and in May 2021, the Zhurong remote-controlled robot landed on the surface of the red planet.
The successful launch of the last module of the Tiangong space station and the continued presence of Chinese astronauts in space mark an important step in China’s space program. Although they initially did not plan to collaborate internationally in the use of their space station, they remain open to the possibility of cooperating with other countries in the future. The next mission, Shenzhou-17, is scheduled for October and will continue to advance China’s space exploration.