A Chinese language spacecraft with a three-person crew, together with the nation’s first feminine house engineer, has docked after a journey of greater than six hours.

The crew will use the homegrown house station as a base for six months to conduct experiments and perform spacewalks as Beijing gathers expertise and intelligence for its eventual mission to place somebody on the Moon by 2030.

Beijing declared the launch of Shenzhou 19 a “full success” – it’s considered one of 100 launches China has deliberate in a report 12 months of house exploration because it tries to outdo its rival, america.

The BBC was given uncommon entry to the Jiuquan Satellite tv for pc launch centre in Gansu and we have been simply over a kilometre away when the spacecraft blasted off.

Flames shot out of the rocket launcher because it took to the skies, lighting up the Gobi Desert with a deafening roar.

A whole lot of individuals lined the streets, waving and cheering the names of the taikonauts, China’s phrase for astronauts, as they have been despatched off.

On the Tiangong house station, the Shenzhou 19 crew met with three different astronauts who’re manning the Shenzhou 18 and can return to Earth on 4 November.

Simply two years in the past, President Xi Jinping declared that “to discover the huge cosmos, develop the house trade and construct China into an area energy is our everlasting dream”.

However some in Washington see the nation’s ambition and fast-paced progress as an actual menace.

Earlier this 12 months, Nasa chief Invoice Nelson mentioned the US and China have been “in impact, in a race” to return to the Moon, the place he fears Beijing needs to stake territorial claims.

He advised legislators that he believed their civilian house programme was additionally a navy programme.

Nevertheless, in Dongfeng Area Metropolis, a city constructed to assist the launch web site, China’s house programme is well known.

Each road gentle is adorned with the nationwide flag.

Cartoon-like astronaut collectible figurines and sculptures sit within the centre of kids’s parks and plastic rockets are a centrepiece on most site visitors roundabouts.

An enormous poster with Xi Jinping on one aspect and a photograph of the Shenzhou spacecraft on the opposite greets you as you drive into the principle compound.

A whole lot have gathered in the dead of night after midnight to wave flags and brightly colored lights because the Taikonauts make their previous few steps on Earth earlier than heading to the launch web site.

The brass band strikes up Ode to the Motherland as younger kids, saved up late for the event, their cheeks adorned with the Chinese language flag, all shout in full music.

This can be a second of nationwide satisfaction.

The pilot of this mission, Cai Xuzhe, is a veteran however he’s travelling with a brand new technology of Chinese language-trained taikonauts born in 1990 – together with China’s first feminine house engineer, Wang Haoze.

“Their youthful power has made me really feel youthful and much more assured,” he advised the gathered media forward of take-off.

“Impressed by goals that spark glory, and by glory that ignites new goals, we guarantee the social gathering and the individuals that we’ll keep true to our mission, with our hearts and minds absolutely devoted. We’ll attempt to realize new accomplishments in China’s crewed house programme.”

Standing to his left, beaming, is Track Lingdong.

He recollects watching considered one of China’s first house station missions as a 13-year-old with “pleasure and awe”. He selected to grow to be a pilot within the hope that that is how he might serve his nation.

All three convey their deep sense of nationwide satisfaction, and state media has emphasised that this will likely be its “youngest crew” so far.

The message is evident: this can be a new technology of house travellers and an funding within the nation’s future.

China has already chosen its subsequent group of astronauts and they’ll practice for potential lunar missions in addition to to crew the house station.

“I’m decided to not let down the belief positioned in me,” says Mr Track. “I’ll attempt to make our nation’s title shine as soon as once more in house.”

China’s title has been “shining brightly” quite a bit recently on the subject of headlines about its house programme.

Earlier this 12 months, the nation achieved a historic first by retrieving rock and soil samples from the far aspect of the Moon.

In 2021, China safely landed a spacecraft on Mars and launched its Zhurong rover – changing into simply the second nation to take action.

China additionally has a fleet of satellites in house and has plans for a lot of extra.

In August it launched the primary 18 of what it hopes will finally be a constellation of 14,000 satellites offering broadband web protection from house, which it hopes will sooner or later rival SpaceX’s Starlink.

Elon Musk, Starlink’s chief govt, admitted on his personal platform X that China’s house programme is much extra superior than individuals realise.

However others within the US are voicing even larger considerations, as they worry this expertise could be weaponised.

The top of US Area Command, Basic Stephen Whiting, advised an area symposium in April that China and Russia have been each investing closely in house at a “breath-taking velocity”.

He claimed that since 2018, China has tripled the quantity of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites it has in orbit, constructing a “kill net over the Pacific Ocean to search out, repair, monitor and goal United States and allied navy capabilities”.

China’s house exploration is a “collective mission for humanity”, says Li Yingliang, director of the overall expertise bureau of China’s Manned Area Company, dismissing US considerations as “pointless”.

“I don’t assume this needs to be known as a contest… China has lengthy upheld the notion of peaceable use of house in its manned house programme. Sooner or later, we’ll additional develop worldwide co-operation in numerous features of manned house expertise, all based mostly on sharing and collaboration,” he provides.

However the brand new house race is not about attending to the Moon. It’s about who will management its assets.

The Moon comprises minerals, together with uncommon earths, metals like iron and titanium – and helium too, which is utilized in the whole lot from superconductors to medical tools.

Estimates for the worth of all this fluctuate wildly, from billions to quadrillions. So it’s straightforward to see why some see the Moon as a spot to make a number of cash. Nevertheless, it’s additionally vital to notice that this could be a really long-term funding – and the tech wanted to extract and return these lunar assets is a way off, writes the BBC’s science editor Rebecca Morelle.

Chinese language specialists on the launch centre have been eager to level out the advantages of Beijing’s house station experiments.

“We examine bones, muscle tissue, nerve cells, and the consequences of microgravity on them. By this analysis, we’ve found that osteoporosis on Earth is definitely much like bone loss in house. If we are able to uncover distinctive patterns in house, we’d have the ability to develop particular drugs to counteract bone loss and muscle atrophy,” mentioned Zhang Wei, from the Chinese language Academy of Sciences.

“Many of those experimental outcomes could be utilized on Earth.”

China is, at occasions, making an attempt to downplay its advances.

On the launch of a roadmap for its house ambitions, which embody constructing a analysis station on the Moon, returning samples of Venus’s ambiance to Earth and launching greater than 30 house missions by the center of this century, Ding Chibiao from the Chinese language Academy of Sciences mentioned the nation didn’t have a large number of achievements “in comparison with developed nations”.

And even right here on the launch centre, they admit to “important challenges” as they attempt to land a crew on the Moon.

“The expertise is complicated, there is a tight schedule, and there are quite a lot of challenges,” mentioned Lin Xiqiang, spokesperson for the China Manned Area Company.

“We’ll sustain the spirit of ‘two bombs and one star’. We’ll preserve our self-confidence and dedication to self-improvement, maintain working collectively and maintain pushing ahead. We’ll make the Chinese language individuals’s dream of touchdown on the Moon a actuality within the close to future.”

That’s maybe why President Xi seems to be prioritising the nation’s house programme even because the economic system is in a gradual decline.

And although they’re bringing alongside worldwide press to witness their progress – there are key restrictions.

We have been saved in a lodge three hours from the launch web site and transported forwards and backwards by bus, a complete journey of 12 hours, moderately than being left on web site for just a few hours.

A easy journey to a pleasant native restaurant was rigorously guarded by a line of safety personnel.

We additionally observed a big signal on the town holds a stern warning: “It’s a criminal offense to leak secrets and techniques. It’s an honour to maintain secrets and techniques. You’ll be jailed when you leak secrets and techniques. You’ll be completely happy when you maintain secrets and techniques. You’ll be shot when you promote secrets and techniques.”

China is taking no probabilities with its new expertise, as its rivalry with america is not simply right here on Earth.

The world’s two strongest international locations might quickly be staking territorial claims properly past this planet.