Mission Reports

Three Chinese astronauts were greeted by three of their colleagues Tuesday as they floated into the Tiangong space station following a launch on a Long March rocket earlier in the day, marking the first time China’s space program has had six astronauts in orbit at the same time.

A Chinese Long March 2F rocket launched three astronauts into orbit from a remote launch site in the Gobi Desert of northwestern China at 10:08 a.m. EST (1508 GMT) Tuesday. The Shenzhou 15 astronauts are embarking on a half-year expedition on China’s Tiangong space station. Docking at the space station is expected about six hours after liftoff.

Three Chinese astronauts will strap into a Shenzhou spacecraft and rocket into orbit Tuesday in pursuit of China’s Tiangong space station on a six-month mission to transition the space lab from construction into an operational phase.

NASA’s unpiloted Orion spacecraft fired its main engine Friday to slip into a distant lunar orbit, putting it on course to range farther from Earth than any of the Apollo astronauts flew in humanity’s first exploration missions to the moon.