A crew of three astronauts including the first Chinese civilian astronaut has arrived at the Tiangong space station.
A Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 9:31 p.m. Eastern May 29. Rendezvous and docking with a radial Tiangong docking port was completed at 4:29 a.m. May 30, China’s human spaceflight agency, CMSA, confirmed.
Commander Jing Haipeng, embarking on his fourth visit to space, spaceflight engineer Zhu Yangzhu and payload specialist and Beihang University professor Gui Haichao—the first Chinese civilian in space—make up the crew of the six-month-long Shenzhou-16 mission.
