China launches longest space mission to date

China successfully launched the two-man spacecraft Shenzhou 11 into orbit on Monday, where it will dock with the space lab Tiangong 2, marking a milestone in the country's ambition of setting up a permanent manned space station by 2022.

About 19 minutes after the 7.30am blast-off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert in Gansu province, the mission was declared a success by Zhang Youxia, commander-in-chief of China's manned space programme.

The “taikonauts”, as they are called in China, will dock with the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, or “Heavenly Palace 2”, which was sent into space last month.At 30 days, it will be the longest stay in space by Chinese astronauts, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Manned missions

China's enthusiasm for space travel is boundless, and the country has made little secret of its desire to send manned missions to the Moon and to Mars. It is only the third country after Russia and the US to carry out manned missions in space, and it plans to launch at least 20 space missions this year.

China was excluded from the International Space Station because of concerns over the military aspects of its space programme.

Among the experiments the crew will carry out in orbit will be growing plants in space and performing ultrasound tests. They will also carry three experiments designed by Hong Kong middle school students and selected in a science competition, including one that will take silk worms into space.

There was widespread enthusiasm for the programme. In one gym on Beijing's Jianguomenwai Street, people stopped to watch footage of the spacecraft being launched atop a Long March 2F rocket, largely enthused by the fact that one of the astronauts, commander Jing Haipeng, was on his third mission and would celebrate his 50th birthday in orbit.

The other taikonaut, Chen Dong (38), is on his first space mission.

‘Space dream’

Before taking off, the taikonauts met Fan Changlong, who is vice-chair of the Central Military Commission. He wished them well and said they were “pursuing the space dream of the Chinese nation”.

President Xi Jinping sent a message from a meeting of the Brics countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa taking place in Goa in India, urging the mission to "constantly break new ground for the manned space programme, so that Chinese people will take bigger steps and march further in space probe, to make new contribution to the building of China into a space power".

On the Weibo social network, the responses from web commentators were generally fulsome.

“I wanna cry, I am so proud of my country and it will be stronger,” wrote Flower of Sunshine, while You Renhe said: “I wish they can return safely in 33 days, they are great and they are heroes!”. Another called Two Worms said : “This is so inspirational.”

However, others felt the annual €2 billion spent on the space programme should go on other more worthy causes.

“If you can spend it on health, medical care and children’s education and making sure that every family has a place to live, that’s worth more than going into space,” ran one posting by someone called Laotianyan.