#taikonaut

Shenzhou-19 crew returns safely to Earth (April 2025)

This Tuesday morning, November 29, 2022, the Chinese Shenzhou-15 mission was launched from the Jiuquan Launch Center to the Tiangong space station. Taikonauts crew at walkout with what looks like Chinese-made “Fiyta” chronographs, strapped over left forearm, no extra wrist watches at first sight. Shenzhou = "divine boat" launched to Tiangong = "sky palace". (Photo: China National Space Administration)

James Boswell

“We've grown used to wonders in this century. It's hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years the United States space program has been doing just that. We've grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we've only just begun. We're still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them. I've always had great faith in and respect for our space program, and what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don't hide our space program. We don't keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute.We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue. There's a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and an historian later said, "He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it." Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."

alec perrio borat

Tiangong space station, photographed from the Shenzhou spacecraft (2023)

Long March-2F Y20 rocket launch, carrying the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft & crew to Tiangong space station (2025)