Reporting for duty: (From left) Li Guangsu, Ye and Li Cong attending a press conference at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. — AFP
China will send a fresh crew to its Tiangong space station, Beijing’s Manned Space Agency announced, the latest mission in a programme that aims to send astronauts to the moon by 2030.
The Shenzhou-18 mission – crewed by three astronauts – is scheduled to take off at 8.59pm today from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, Beijing announced yesterday.
It will be led by Ye Guangfu, a fighter pilot and astronaut who was previously part of the Shenzhou-13 crew in 2021.
He will be joined by astronauts Li Cong and Li Guangsu, who are heading into space for the first time.
The latest batch of Tiangong astronauts will stay in orbit for six months, carrying out experiments in gravity and physics, as well as in life sciences.
They will also carry out a “project on high-resolution global greenhouse gas detection”, deputy director-general of the CMSA Lin Xiqiang said, according to state news agency Xinhua. — AFP
