BEIJING, 31st May, 2023 (WAM) — The China Space Station marked a significant “celestial rendezvous” as it welcomed a team of six taikonauts on Tuesday evening, following the transition of the station into its application and development phase in late 2022, reported Global Times, an English-language Chinese newspaper. Under the leadership of mission commander and seasoned taikonaut Jing Haipeng, the trio from Shenzhou-16 joined their comrades aboard the station at 6:22 pm on Tuesday, sharing heartwarming greetings with their Shenzhou-15 counterparts, This historic occasion signalled the onset of China’s second direct in-orbit handover between two Shenzhou crews, mirroring the initial exchange between the Shenzhou-15 and Shenzhou-14 teams in November 2022. The crews from the two missions will execute an in-orbit handover and cohabit the space station for approximately five days, at which point the Shenzhou-15 will embark on its journey back to Earth, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). As it stands, a total of 17 astronauts from various nations are in orbit: six Chinese taikonauts, five NASA astronauts from the United States, three Russian cosmonauts, two astronauts from Saudi Arabia, and one from the UAE. Signifying China’s first manned mission since the transition of its space station into the application and development phase, the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft–carrying a team of three taikonauts–launched successfully aboard a Long March-2F carrier rocket at 9:31 am on Tuesday. The launch took place at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, located in Northwest China. Rola AlGhoul/Esraa Esmail

Source: Emirates News Agency (WAM)