China has successfully launched the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft, sending three astronauts to its Tiangong space station on a regular crew rotation mission. The crew will relieve their colleagues currently in orbit and continue long duration experiments aboard the country’s permanent outpost. 

RT correspondent Konstantin Rozhkov reported from the Jiuquan launch site in the Gobi Desert, where a Long March-2F rocket carried the spacecraft into orbit. He noted the parallels between China’s crewed program and Russia’s long track record with Soyuz flights, as well as the two countries’ enduring cooperation dating back to the 1990s, which has included training Chinese astronauts.

He also spoke to Zhou Yaqiang, a senior engineer at the China Manned Space Agency, who said that China wants Tiangong to serve as “a shared home and a common asset for all humanity” and plans to “strengthen cooperation, deepen exchanges, and jointly promote the long term, peaceful and shared development of space activities.”

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