China successfully launched the Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceship on Friday (Oct. 31), sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station on a six-month mission.
The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off at 11:44 p.m. from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. About 10 minutes after the launch, the spaceship separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit.
In the early hours of Nov. 1, after completing an automated docking with the space station, astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang will enter the station and meet with the Shenzhou-20 crew, achieving a "space rendezvous." Meanwhile, four "mouse astronauts" will also embark on a five-day journey in space.
According to Zhang Jingbo, spokesperson for the China Manned Space Agency, after entering orbit, the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft is scheduled to conduct a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the Tianhe core module approximately 3.5 hours later, forming a combination of three spacecraft and three modules.
During their stay in orbit, the crew will carry out a total of 27 new scientific and application projects, focusing on key scientific issues across several fields, including space life science and biotechnology, aerospace medicine, space materials science, microgravity fluid physics and combustion, and new space technologies. Among these, a key experiment will be the first-ever space experiment involving domestic rodents, using four mice – two males and two females, which will be flown aboard the spacecraft and raised in orbit.
Mice are important mammalian model organisms in life science research. With their high genetic similarity to humans, small body size, and short reproductive cycles, mice serve as vital models for studying physiology, pathology, growth, reproduction, and development in space. This research is significant for understanding long-term human survival and reproduction in space and improving human health.
In this mission, four "mouse astronauts" will embark on a space journey as part of the research. Through multi-dimensional video monitoring of the mice's behavior in space, the study will explore the effects of microgravity and confined space conditions on their behavior.
It will also preliminarily investigate the stress responses and adaptive changes of mice in space environments. The four mice will be kept in orbit for about five days, after which they will return to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft for further scientific studies.
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