Bejing: Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke to three astronauts stationed at the Chinese Space Station on Wednesday and said that the project is a part of the country’s ambitious space exploration program. Milestone’. A Chinese spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts successfully reached the country’s under-construction space station, hours after it left the Gobi desert on Thursday. The development is being seen as a major breakthrough in China’s ambitious attempt to become a space power.
According to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft successfully attached to the space station’s core module Tianhe on Thursday afternoon. Xi, general secretary of the ruling Communist Party and head of the People’s Liberation Army, spoke to astronauts Ni Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center. It was broadcast live on government TV channels. In the first direct contact with the astronauts, Xi spoke to them for five minutes and thanked them for their contributions to space. This shows the importance the Chinese leadership attaches to the country’s space exploration project.
“You will be in space for three months, while your work and your life in space will remain in the hearts of the Chinese people,” he said. “The establishment of our own space station is a milestone and an important contribution to humanity in the peaceful use of space,” Xi said, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post news.
The three astronauts saluted Xi and thanked the nation for their support. All three astronauts are members of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).
