Shenzhou-12 Manned Mission By China
Source : The Hindu
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Why in News ?
China has launched three astronauts into orbit to begin occupation of the country’s new space station.
Key Facts
- It will be China’s longest crewed space mission to date and the first in nearly five years.
- Shenzhou-12 Manned Mission By China launch and subsequent mission are another demonstration of China’s growing confidence and capability in the space domain.
Image by WikiImages from Pixabay - Recent achievements by China
- Past six months China has returned rock and soil samples to Earth from the surface of the Moon.
- Landed a six-wheeled robot on Mars – both highly complex and challenging mission.
- The primary objective for Commander and his team on the Shenzhou-12 mission is to bring the 22.5-tonne Tianhe module into service.
- In May 2021 China’s Tianwen spacecraft landed on Mars carrying a rover, the Zhurong.
- China will conduct scientific investigations into the planet’s soil, geological structure, environment, atmosphere and water.
Growing Chinese Presence in Space
- China provide significant funding into its space efforts.
- In 2019 became the first country to send an un-crewed rover to the far side of the Moon.
- Russia, which has shared technology in the past with China, has mentioned the possibility of sending its cosmonauts.
- China is not a participant in the International Space Station (ISS), largely as a result of US objections to the Chinese program’s secrecy and close military ties.
- So China alone in developing a space station, in part because it has been excluded from the International Space Station project.
- US, which leads that partnership with Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, will not co-operate with the Asian nation in orbit.
- It is expected that China’s station may continue operating beyond the ISS, which is reaching the end of its functional life.
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