China sent three astronauts to its space station on Thursday. Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo traveled aboard the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft, launched on a Long March 2F rocket at 9:22 a.m., China time.

The move marks an important step as the world’s second-largest economy seeks to boost its space capabilities and challenge NASA, since it is also conducting its own research on Mars in parallel with the U.S. agency’s Perseverance mission.

Zhang Zhifen, director of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, declared the mission a “complete success” twenty minutes after liftoff and noted that this is the first time China has sent a crewed mission into space since 2016.

China built its own station because of the ISS ban

It is worth noting that China is barred from sending its astronauts to the International Space Station, jointly operated by the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, which is why it decided to launch its own station.

China expects its self-developed, three-module space station to be fully operational by 2022, and will send crewed missions like this one to put it to the test.

In April it launched one of the modules that will make up the space station, named Tianhe, which will serve as the astronauts’ living quarters. And last month, China sent the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft to dock with Tianhe carrying 6.6 tons of supplies.

China will carry out 11 missions this year and next to complete construction of the space station, including four crewed missions.

The three astronauts sent to the space station on Thursday will spend three months there, testing the technologies required for the station’s construction and operation, such as life-support systems and in-orbit maintenance, and will also perform spacewalks.

Source: Xataka