BEIJING — A Chinese spacecraft will blast off from the Gobi Desert on a Long March rocket in the coming days, ferrying three men to an orbiting space module for a three-month stay, the first time China has sent humans into space for nearly five years.
Shenzhou-12, meaning “Divine Vessel,” will be the third of 11 missions needed to complete China’s space station by 2022. Among them, four will be missions with people on board, potentially propelling up to 12 Chinese astronauts into space – more than the 11 men and women that China has sent since 2003.
The craft will also carry into space the hopes of some in Earth’s most populous nation.
“The motherland is powerful,…
Keep on reading: ‘Divine Vessel’ to mark China’s first human spaceflight since 2016