China's Longest Ever Crewed Mission To Space Has Just Began

China has sent its first astronauts to its new space station on the country’s longest crewed mission.

On Thursday June 17, Nie Haisheng (56), Liu Boming (54), and Tang Hongbo (45), were blasted off in a rocket to Tianhe space station

This is not Haisheng or Boming first time to space either, but for Hongbo his first final salute was an instrumental endeavor.

Director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office Yang Liwei said, after 10 years of research, they are now at the stage of in-orbit assembly.

The three Chinese astronauts are set to stay there for the next three months. They will be testing experiments and preparing for a sequence of moonwalks.

China's New Space Station:

China is currently unable to go to the most popular International Space Station (ISS). The ISS has intergovernmental ownership and agreements with the US, Russia, Europe and Canada. 

According to ABC News, if the ISS project doesn’t receive new funding by 2024, China could end up being the only sole operator of a space station in earth’s orbit 

Catch up on the latest headlines on The National Briefing. Available on Listnr.