China on Tuesday launched the Shenzhou-16 manned spaceship, sending three astronauts to its space station combination for a five-month mission.
The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
The crew, consisting of Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao, will witness the dockings of the Tianzhou-5 cargo craft and the Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship, as well as the departures of the Shenzhou-15 manned spaceship and Tianzhou-5.
The Shenzhou-16 astronauts will conduct large-scale in-orbit tests and experiments in various fields as planned.
They are expected to make high-level scientific achievements in the study of novel quantum phenomena, high-precision space time-frequency systems, the verification of general relativity, and the origin of life.
It is the first crewed mission for the application and development stage of China's space station.
Source: Qatar News Agency