China to send three astronauts to Tiangong space station, part of its ambitious program

By ANDY WONG and SIMINA MISTREANU
Associated Press

JIUQUAN SATELLITE LAUNCH CENTER, China (AP) — China’s space agency is making final preparations to send the Shenzhou-18 crew into low-Earth orbit on Thursday as part of its ambitious space program that aims to put people on the moon by 2030. In a press conference on Wednesday, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) introduced the three astronauts. The crew will spend about six months on the space station. and conduct various experiments. The three-member crew’s spacecraft is set for lift-off at 1259 GMT from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in the country’s northwest. They will relieve the Shenzhou-17 team, who have manned China’s Tiangong space station since last October.