Shenzhou XIV mission blasts off

Shenzhou XIV is the sixth spacecraft to visit Tiangong station and the third crewed ship to transport astronauts to the orbiting outpost.

As of the spacecraft's arrival on Sunday afternoon, the Tiangong station consists of three parts — the Tianhe core module and the Tianzhou 3 and the Tianzhou 4 cargo ships.

The Shenzhou XIV crew, all from the second generation of the country's astronauts, will work with ground controllers to connect the Wentian and Mengtian space labs with the Tianhe module and then use a robotic arm to move the labs to their permanent position, Lin Xiqiang, deputy head of the China Manned Space Agency, said at a news conference inside the Jiuquan center on Saturday.

Wentian, the station's first lab component, will be lifted in July by a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, while the second lab Mengtian will be launched by the same rocket model from Wenchang in October. After they are connected with Tiangong, the station will form a T-shaped structure.

Other tasks for the astronauts include installing and configuring equipment, conducting scientific experiments and technological demonstration and maintaining routine operations of the Tiangong station.

During their stay, the astronauts will fulfill two to three spacewalks and give science lectures to students, he said.