China’s Shenzhou 18 crew have passed the keys to the Tiangong space station to its new occupants.
The Shenzhou 19 mission launched on a Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China on Oct. 29 and arrived at the Tiangong space station 6.5 hours later.
Shortly thereafter, at 12:51 a.m. EDT (0451 GMT) on Oct. 30, the hatch between the Shenzhou 19 spacecraft and Tiangong was opened, allowing the three Shenzhou 18 mission astronauts to greet the trio of new arrivals aboard.
The formal handover of the station happened on Friday (Nov. 1), with Shenzhou 18 commander Ye Guangfu — who recently became China’s first astronaut to spend 365 days in space in total — passing a symbolic key to Shenzhou 19 commander Cai Xuzhe. Both crews then shook hands.
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The Shenzhou 19 crew is China’s youngest so far, with Cai, 48, and rookies Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, both of whom were born in 1990. Wang is currently China’s only female spaceflight engineer.
The Shenzhou 19 trio now begin their own six-month-long stay aboard Tiangong and get to work on a planned 86 scientific projects and experiments, as well as extravehicular activities, or spacewalks.
One notable experiment will involve sending a brick made from lunar soil simulant to Tiangong for placement outside the space station. Researchers want to study how bricks made from local moon materials hold up in extreme environments to help plan a future outpost on the surface of the moon. The brick is set to arrive at Tiangong aboard the Tianzhou 8 cargo resupply mission later in November.
Meanwhile, Ye and Shenzhou 18 crewmates Li Cong and Li Guangsu will prepare to return home. They are expected to touch down in the Dongfeng landing area near Jiuquan spaceport on Nov. 3.
