China launches three astronauts to Tiangong-3 space station
China today successfully launched a new crew of three astronauts for a six-month mission on its Tiangog-3 space station, its Long March 2F rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.
The crew’s Shenzhou capsule will dock autonomously with the station later today. This was China’s fifteenth manned mission and ninth to the station, which it has now occupied continuously for more than three and a half years.
The rocket’s core stage and four strap-on boosters crashed somewhere inside China. No word on where or whether they crashed near any habitable areas.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
46 SpaceX
21 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 46 to 36.
China today successfully launched a new crew of three astronauts for a six-month mission on its Tiangog-3 space station, its Long March 2F rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.
The crew’s Shenzhou capsule will dock autonomously with the station later today. This was China’s fifteenth manned mission and ninth to the station, which it has now occupied continuously for more than three and a half years.
The rocket’s core stage and four strap-on boosters crashed somewhere inside China. No word on where or whether they crashed near any habitable areas.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
46 SpaceX
21 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 46 to 36.