China sends astronauts to ‘Celestial Palace' in historic space mission

China sent a spacecraft carrying three astronauts to its space station for the first in-orbit crew rotation in Chinese space history, launching operation of the second inhabited outpost in lowearth orbit after the Nasa-led International Space Station. The spacecraft Shenzhou-15, or “Divine Vessel”, and its three passengers lifted off atop a Long March-2f rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre at 11:08 p.m. (1508 GMT) on Tuesday amid sub-freezing temperatures in the Gobi Desert in northwest China, according to state television. Shenzhou-15 was the last of 11 missions, including three prior crewed missions, that began in April 2021 needed to assemble the “Celestial Palace”, as the multi-module station is known in Chinese. The trio will take over from the Shenzhou-14 crew who arrived in early June. — reuters