蜜芽传媒

Three Chinese astronauts have begun a six-month mission, to work on the country's new space station. When built, China's modular satellite will be roughly a fifth of the size of the international space station by mass.

China is only the third country in history to have put both astronauts into space and to build a space station, after Russia and the US.

However according to Dr Wendy Whitman-Cobb, from the US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, China鈥檚 race into space is 20 years late. She tells Newsday that China is 鈥渁t the position the US, the European Space Agency and other partners were at more than 20 years ago with the International Space Agency鈥�.

(Picture: A Long March 2F carrier rocket carrying the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft and three astronauts blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on June 5, 2022 in Jiuquan, Gansu Province of China. Credit: VCG via Getty Images)