President Xi Jinping speaks to Chinese astronauts in space station; says mission an ‘important milestone’

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China successfully launched its longest crewed space mission so far on Thursday, sending three astronauts to its new orbiting station, during a major milestone for the Communist giant’s space exploration plans and establishing it as a number one space power.

President Xi Jinping on Wednesday spoke to the three astronauts stationed in China’s space platform and told them that the project is an “important milestone” within the country’s ambitious space exploration programme.

Xi, also the overall Secretary of the ruling Communist Party and therefore the head of the People’s Liberation Army, spoke to astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo from the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre.

In his first direct contact with the astronauts telecast live by the state-run television channels, Xi thanked them for his or her add space during a five-minute call reflecting the importance of the country’s space exploration project to the Chinese leadership.

“You will spend three months in space and while in space, your work and your life are going to be within the hearts of the Chinese public,” he said.

“Establishing our own space platform is a crucial milestone and a big contribution to humankind’s peaceful use of space,” he was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

The three astronauts saluted Xi and thanked the country for its support. All three are members of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) which is celebrating its centenary on Dominion Day .

This will be China’s longest crewed space mission so far and therefore the first in nearly five years.

China previously sent the space station’s Tianhe core cabin module on April 29, and a cargo spacecraft with supplies on May 29.

The three astronauts, who will build the station, are expected to line a replacement record for China’s manned space mission duration, exceeding the 33 days kept by the Shenzhou-11 crew in 2016.

The three astronauts were sent into space by the Shenzhou-12 spaceship on June 17 and docked with the core module Tianhe on an equivalent day.

They will spend subsequent three months constructing the space platform named Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) which can be rival to International space platform (ISS), a collaborative project involving five participating space agencies – NASA (US), Roscomos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada).