China launched a three-person crew for a mission of six-month on board the Shenzhou-13 spaceship to its space station on October 16, 2021.

Key Points

• The crew is planned to set up new record for the time spent in space by Chinese astronauts as China moves for completing the orbiting structure.
• Shenzhou-13 spaceship is carrying three astronauts.
• It was launched by a Long March-2F rocket.
• The spacecraft is expected to complete docking with “Tianhe module” within six hours.
• The mission will continue the work of first three-person crew that already spent 90 days on board.
• First three-person crew conducted two spacewalks and deployed 10-metre (33-foot) mechanical arm before they returned to Earth in mid-September, 2021.

About new three-member crew

New three-member crew comprise of two veterans of space travel namely, pilot Zhai Zhigang aged 55, the only woman on mission- Wang Yaping aged 41 and Ye Guangfu aged 41, who is making his first trip to space.