By Aidoghie Paulinus
China launched the Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship on October 30, 2024, sending three astronauts, including the country’s first female space engineer to its orbiting space station for a six-month mission.
The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off at 4:27 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said.
About 10 minutes after the launch, the Shenzhou-19 spaceship separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit.
“The crew members are in good shape and the launch is a complete success,” the CMSA announced.
The spaceship will then perform a fast, automated rendezvous and docking with the front port of the space station core module Tianhe in about 6.5 hours, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.
The Shenzhou-19 crew consists of mission commander Cai Xuzhe, and astronauts Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze.