China set to launch its fourth manned mission for space station

China announced on Tuesday its plans for a fourth manned mission to replace the crew aboard its space station, naming a three-member team—including a woman—to stay at the low-orbit facility for the next six months.

China's crewed spaceship Shenzhou-19 is scheduled to be launched at 4.27 am (Beijing Time) on Wednesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the country's northwest, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

The launch will use a Long March-2F carrier rocket, said Lin Xiqiang, the deputy director of CMSA, at a press conference at the Jiuquan centre.

Shenzhou-19 is the 33rd flight mission of China's manned space programme and the fourth manned mission during the application and development stage of China's space station.

After entering orbit, the Shenzhou-19 spaceship will perform a fast-automated rendezvous and docking with the front port of the space station core module Tianhe in about 6.5 hours, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Lin as saying. Lin said the three Chinese astronauts who will take part in this manned mission were Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze.

While Cai who took part in the Shenzhou-14 space mission in 2022 will be the commander, Song was a former air force pilot, and Wang previously served as a senior engineer at the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology under under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Wang, who is currently China's only female space flight engineer, will become the third Chinese woman to embark on a crewed spaceflight mission, Lin said.

They will replace three astronauts who have been manning the station for the past six months and will return to the Earth in the coming days.

Lin said the new astronauts would carry out 86 space science research and technology experiments covering various fields, including space life science, micro-gravity fundamental physics, space material science, space medicine, and new space technologies.

News.Az