The Chinese Shenzhou-18 space mission, with three crew members, took off this Thursday in the direction of the Tiangong space station, state media reported.
The spacecraft, carried by a Long March 2F rocket, took off from the Jiuquan launch center in northwest China at 8:59 p.m. local time (12:59 GMT).
The mission is led by Ye Guangfu, a fighter jet pilot who was already a crew member on the Shenzhou-13 mission in 2021.
He is accompanied by Li Cong and Li Guangsu, who are traveling to space for the first time.
They will remain at the Tiangong space station for six months, during which they plan to carry out experiments “in the fields of basic physics in microgravity, space materials science, space life science, space medicine and space technology,” said the Space Agency. China.
The new crew will replace the Shenzhou-17 mission team, which blasted off into space in October.
Beijing seeks to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2030 and build a base on the surface of the satellite.
China has been de facto excluded from the International Space Station since 2011, when the United States banned NASA from working with the Asian giant, forcing Beijing to develop its own space station.
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