China executes 7th crew rotation on Tiangong Space Station
Chinese Taikonauts carried out the seventh crew rotation on the Tiangong Space Station. The crew celebrated with a party where chicken wings and beef steaks were freshly roasted in an oven.
On 31 October, the Long March-2F Y21 carrier rocket lifted off from the Juiquan Satellite Launch Centre in Northwest China at 23:44 hours Beijing Time, carrying the Shenzhou-21 spaceship with a crew of three on board. On board were space pilot Zhang Lu, flight engineer Wu Fei and payload specialist Zhang Hongzhang. There were also four mice on board, two male and two female, who will be used for microgravity experiments to evaluate how living in space affects the physiologies of life forms. After about three hours of entering Earth orbit, the spaceship used the fast automated and docking mode to dock with the forward-facing port of the Tianhe core module.
With the successful docking Tiangong entered into a three module and three spacecraft configuration. The hatch was opened at 4:58 hours Beijing Time on 1 November with the Shenzhou-20 crew, consisting of Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie welcoming the newcomers on board. The handover process lasts for about a week. All the inhabitants on board celebrated with a BBQ party, where the oven on board was used to roast chicken wings and beef steaks. A standard crew rotation lasts for a period of six weeks, with the a crew of three remaining on board at all times. It is not clear if the mice received any fresh meat.
Return of Shenzhou-20 crew delayed
The Shenzhou-20 crew were supposed to return after a handover period of five days, but this flight has been delayed because of a small impact by a micrometeoroid or space debris. The impact is being analysed, and risk assessment is being carried out in the additional time for the return journey, to ensure that the three taikonauts are safely returned to the ground. China is the only country in the world currently operating its own space station, but India and Russia plan to start assembling their own orbital platforms by 2028. After the retirement of the International Space Station (ISS) in the 2030s, USA plans to transition to private orbital complexes for continuation of microgravity experiments.