China Successfully Launches Shenzhou-14 Spacecraft

The Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft has been successfully launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. 

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This is China's first manned mission this year, with three taikonauts aboard, making up the mission, which is expected to complete the construction of China's Space Station. 

At 10:44 a.m. Beijing local time, the Great March 2-F carrier rockets lifted off from the satellite launch pad, carrying the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft with the three taikonauts who will live on the Tiangong Space Station for six months.

The launch of Shenzhou-14 comes two months after the return of the Shenzhou-13 crew in April. 

This is the third manned mission since 2021, and the first mission of the second phase aimed at building China's Space Station.

The trio will cooperate with the team on the ground to complete the assembly and construction of the Tiangong Space Station from a single-module structure to a national space laboratory with three modules, namely the Tianhe core module and the Wentian and Mengtian laboratory modules.

The three Chinese astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft entered the central module of the country's space station, Tianhe, on Sunday, the China Manned Space Agency reported.