China on Thursday launched the core module for its first permanent space station that will host astronauts long-term.
The Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony," module blasted into space atop a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang Launch Center on the southern island province of Hainan, marking another major advance for the country's space exploration program that has chalked up a series of accomplishments in recent months.
The launch begins the first of 11 missions necessary to construct and provision the station and send up a three-person crew by the end of next year. The astronauts will live on the station for six months at a time.
China's space programme has also recently brought back the first new lunar samples in more than 40 years and expects to land a probe and rover on the surface of Mars later next month.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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