China Sends a Crew to Its Space Station

The Chinese manned space program office announced that "China will send a crew to its space station today, Thursday." During a press conference, the deputy director of the office stated, "It is planned to launch the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft towards the Chinese space station at 20:59 Beijing time (15:59 Moscow time), which will carry three astronauts to the station." The astronauts of Shenzhou 18 are expected to stay aboard the Chinese space station for six months and return to Earth on the same spacecraft, which is set to land in an autonomous region of Inner Mongolia in northern China by the end of October. The crew of the currently docked Shenzhou 17 spacecraft is expected to return to Earth on April 30 of this month. China previously indicated that its space station is expected to operate in space for 10 years at altitudes between 340 and 450 kilometers above Earth and is designed to accommodate three astronauts (or six astronauts for short periods during crew changes). This station will also be used for international space projects.