Jing, the mission commander, is a space veteran who was among China’s first team of astronauts in 1998 and has already completed three manned flight missions. Gui will operate payloads for space experiments, while Jing and Zhu will operate and manage the spacecraft, in addition to carrying out technical tests, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a press conference on Monday introducing the crew.Ĭhinese astronauts for the Shenzhou-16 mission, from left, Gui Haichao, Jing Haipeng and Zhu Yangzhu wave as they arrive for a send-off ceremony ahead of their manned space mission at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China on May 30, 2023. All other astronauts have been members of China’s People’s Liberation Army. The two crews were expected to meet on the station around 6.5 hours time after the launch, state media said.Īmong the Shenzhou-16 crew, Gui, a professor at China’s prestigious aeronautics institution Beihang University who pursued his postdoctoral studies in Canada, is the first Chinese civilian to be on a spaceflight.
The Shenzhou-15 crew aboard the station were pictured watching the launch of their replacement crew via live stream. It is China’s fifth manned mission to the space station since 2021. The crew – Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu, and Gui Haichao – will take over from the Shenzhou-15 astronauts, who have been abroad China’s newly completed Tiangong space station since November, to start their own five-month stint aboard the station. on Tuesday morning, headed for the Tiangong space station orbiting earth. The three Shenzhou-16 astronauts blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the desert of China’s Gansu province at 9:31 a.m. China sent its first civilian astronaut into orbit on Tuesday, as it launched the Shenzhou-16 mission to its space station for its second in-orbit crew rotation, marking another step forward for the country’s ambitious space program.
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