It now has its own permanent outpost in orbit – a fully operational space station – and routinely rotates crews to live and work there. On Thursday, three Chinese astronauts lifted off on the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center deep in the Gobi Desert, heading for the Tiangong space station for a six-month stay. With a lifespan of 15 years, it could become the only one left when the NASA-led International Space Station (ISS) retires in 2030. That exclusion has at least in part spurred Beijing to build its own space station. “We’ve been operating spacecraft, space shuttle, space station for decades.

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