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China's youngest ever astronauts blast off from the Gobi Desert

China's youngest ever astronauts blast off from the Gobi Desert

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The ground vibrates beneath us as soon as the countdown ends and the spacecraft takes to the skies. Flames shoot out of the rocket launcher lighting up the Gobi Desert, which is then filled with a deafening roar.

The BBC was given rare access to Jiuquan Satellite launch centre in Gansu and we were just over a kilometre away when the Shenzhou 19 spacecraft blasted off early on Wednesday.

It is crewed by three taikonauts - China’s word for astronauts - who are the latest in a series of explorers to head to the country’s homegrown space station, Tiangong, or "Heavenly Palace".

They will use it as a base for six months to conduct experiments and carry out spacewalks as the country tries to gain experience and intelligence for its eventual mission to put someone from China on the Moon by 2030

Just two years ago, President Xi Jinping declared that "to explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build China into a space power is our eternal dream”.

But some in Washington see the country’s ambition and fast-paced progress as a real threat.

Earlier this year, Nasa chief Bill Nelson said the US and China were “in effect, in a race” to return to the Moon, where he fears Beijing wants to stake territorial claims.

He told legislators that he believed their civilian space programme was also a military programme.

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