China Sends Three Astronauts to Space Station in Record-Length Mission Push

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Jiuquan: China launched three astronauts to its Tiangong space station on Sunday, with one crew member set to stay in orbit for up to a year, marking the country’s longest planned human space mission to date.

The Shenzhou-23 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 11:08 p.m. local time, carried by a Long March-2F rocket. The mission is part of China’s broader effort to study long-term human health in space and prepare for future crewed missions to the Moon.

The crew includes commander Zhu Yangzhu, pilot Zhang Yuanzhi, and payload specialist Li Jiaying, a former Hong Kong police officer who becomes the first astronaut from the city to join a Chinese space mission. One of the astronauts will remain on the space station for about a year, although the final assignment has not yet been confirmed.

China has now carried out nearly a dozen crewed missions to its space station, but this latest flight comes at a time of increasing global competition in space exploration, especially with the United States.

Pic Credit: Chinese Space Station