China reveals new team of astronauts for space station launch

Beijing | China announced Wednesday the members of a three-person crew that will be launched to its space station as part of its growing exploration of space.

The Shenzhou 20 mission's astronauts are Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie, Lin Xiqiang, deputy director general of China Manned Space Agency, said. They will replace three astronauts currently on the Chinese space station. Like those before them, they will stay there for roughly six months.

The three will launch for space Thursday evening in China, from Jiuquan, on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China.

The three-person crew were sent in October last year and have been in space for 175 days, said Lin.

Chen Dong, who previously served on the Shenzhou 11 and Shenzhou 14 missions, is the group leader, while his two crewmates will be making their first trips to space. Chen Zhongrui was an air force pilot and Wang Jie, an engineer with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Chen Dong led construction of the space station during the Shenzhou 14 mission.

While in space, the astronauts will carry out experiments in space medicine, and space technology; perform extravehicular trips; and make improvements to the space station.

China built its own space station after it was excluded from the International Space Station owing to US national security concerns over the control of the country's space programme by the People's Liberation Army, the military branch of the ruling Communist Party.

China's space programme has grown rapidly in recent years. The space agency has landed an explorer on Mars and a rover on the far side of the moon. It aims to put a person on the moon before 2030.

The returning astronauts are expected to land on April 29.