First astronauts en route for China’s Tiangong space station | DW News

he first astronauts for China's new space station have blasted off for the country's longest crewed mission. The Long March-2F rocket carrying three astronauts lifted off on Thursday at 9:22 a.m. local time (0122 UTC) from the Jiuquan launch center in the Gobi desert of northwestern China. Shenzhou-12 is the third of 11 missions — four of which will be crewed — needed to complete China's first space station. The astronauts, wearing their spacesuits, were seen off by the commander of China's manned space program and other military