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February 12th, 2024
Shenzhou-17 space station crew in celebration mood.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The Spring Festival, which centers around the Chinese New Year, is being celebrated by China’s Shenzhou-17 space station crew: The Year of the Dragon
Festive decorations have been placed inside the Tiangong space station.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Chinese astronauts Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie, and Jiang Xinlin pasted Spring Festival couplets on the walls of the station’s Tianhe core module, the Wentian experimental module, and the Mengtian experimental module.
Traditional New Year’s Eve dinner had the crew consume festive food such as dumplings, osmanthus cheese rice cakes, and other favorite snacks.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
In good health
This marks the third time that Chinese astronauts have celebrated the Spring Festival in space, far from Earth, following the Shenzhou-13 and Shenzhou-15 missions of the previous two years.
“After having been in orbit for more than 100 days, the entire astronaut crew is in very good working condition, physical and mental condition, and are in good health,” Wang Chunhui, deputy chief designer of astronaut system at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center told China Central Television (CCTV).
“They will resume work on the fourth day of the Chinese New Year and make a lot of preparations in advance for the following extravehicular missions and some on-orbit experiments,” said Wang.
The now-orbiting Shenzhou-17 crew was launched on Oct. 26 last year, with the three crew members assigned a six-month mission aboard the Tiangong space station.
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China space station is captured in this photo taken by the departing Shenzhou-16 crew.
Image credit: CMS
Posted in Space News
