A Shenzhou-13 spacecraft carrying three astronauts has successfully docked with China’s first permanent space station, the Tiangong.

The new crew, including the first woman to board the Tiangong space station, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia, carried by a Long March 2F rocket.

The crew docked with the Tiangong six after launch and are expected to stay aboard the station for over 180 days, or about six and half months. The mission will be the longest ever undertaken by China’s Manned Space Agency.

China has sought to build its own space station after its scientists were barred from using the International Space Station by the West. The United States has accused China of stealing intellectual property and has called China a threat to its national security.

The Tiangong Space Station is currently in the process of being assembled and is expected to be around one-sixth of the size of the International Space Station. Work on the station began early this year when the core module was placed into orbit, and a crew of three astronauts spent over three months prepping the module to receive additional components.

Tiangong space station with two Tianzhou cargo ships docked at either end, and the Shenzhou 13 docked on bottom. Credit: CMSE

The new crew, astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping, and Ye Guangfu will continue to the work from where the previous crew left off, testing technologies to be used for the station’s construction such as the robotic arms used for manoeuvring equipment and hardware, as well as perform spacewalks, installing equipment and preparing the existing modules as well as assessing living conditions in the core modules.

Prior to the arrival of the astronauts, two cargo crafts, the Tianzhou-2 and the Tianzhou-3 had already docked with the core module and contains the necessary equipment for the crew to prep the station for further expansion.

The crew will also conduct several experiments in microgravity in fields such as medicine.

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