The Shenzhou 12 mission docked with Tianhe (

China's Shenzhou 12 spacecraft docks at space station with 3 astronauts

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2021-06-21 17:30:07

The Shenzhou 12 mission docked with Tianhe ("Harmony of the Heavens"), the Chinese space station core module, at 3:54 a.m. EDT (0754 GMT) Thursday (June 17), about 6 1/2 hours after lifting off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

The three Shenzhou 12 astronauts — Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, all men — will live on board the 54-foot-long (16.6 meters) Tianhe for the next three months, testing its various systems and getting the module fully up and running.

The Shenzhou 12 launch was the third in less than two months for China's space station program. Tianhe's April 28 liftoff kicked things off. The robotic Tianzhou 2 freighter delivered more than 6.6 tons of supplies to the module a month later and remains docked to Tianhe today.

Eight more launches will be required to finish construction of the space station, Chinese officials have said. Two will loft "lab modules" that will attach to Tianhe, forming the final T-shaped station. The assembly phase, which is expected to wrap up by the end of 2022, will also include three more cargo launches and three additional crewed missions.