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1 of 2 | Astronauts of Shenzhou 18 spaceflight ngo Ye Guangfu (C), Li Cong (R), and Li Guangsu be a property convention Wednesday successful Jiuquan, Gansu province, China. The parented spaceflight mission, scheduled for Thursday, is nan 3rd of China Space Station's improvement shape arsenic nan state targets a parented lunar landing by nan extremity of nan decade. Photo by Wu Hao/EPA-EFE
April 24 (UPI) -- China will motorboat 3 unit members into low-Earth orbit Thursday for a six-month ngo astatine Tiangong abstraction station, arsenic China prepares to put astronauts connected nan satellite earlier nan extremity of nan decade.
The Shenzhou 18 astronauts will motorboat aboard a Long March 2F rocket from nan Jiuquan spaceport successful northwest China connected Thursday night, and are expected to scope Tiangong abstraction position astir 7 hours later.
The Shenzhou 18 unit members Ye Guangfu, 43, Li Cong, 34, and Li Guangsu, 36, were introduced astatine a news convention Wednesday connected China's nationalist abstraction day. They will return complete for nan Shenzhou 17 crew, presently astatine Tiangong, who will return to Earth in their ain spacecraft connected April 30.
The Shenzhou 18 unit will walk nan adjacent six months monitoring and making repairs to nan functioning and capacity of nan abstraction station, successful summation to extravehicular activities, aliases spacewalks.
"The Shenzhou 18 astronauts will transportation retired six cargo outbound deliveries via nan station's cargo airlock module and instrumentality 2 to 3 extravehicular activities," Lin Xiqiang, lawman head of nan CMSA, told reporters.
"During nan extravehicular activities, nan astronauts will instal abstraction debris protection reinforcements for extravehicular piping, cables and captious equipment, and transportation retired extravehicular inspections, arsenic appropriate, to further safeguard nan information of nan abstraction station," he said.
China Manned Space Agency started building Tiangong abstraction position successful April 2021 aft nan abstraction agency put its halfway module into orbit.
Shenzhou 18 will beryllium nan seventh unit to sojourn Tiangong, pinch China readying to support nan abstraction position occupied and operational for nan adjacent 10 years. The unit is scheduled to return to nan Dongfeng landing tract successful precocious October.
"The China Space Station has been afloat completed," Ye Guangfu told reporters Wednesday. "I judge that nan continuous improvement of China's aerospace industry will make greater contributions to building a organization pinch a shared early for mankind."
In summation to introducing nan astronauts for Thursday's motorboat to Tiangong, nan China Manned Space Engineering Office provided a uncommon update connected nan country's crewed lunar program, saying China is connected target to scope nan satellite by 2030.
"The programme improvement for awesome formation products, including nan Long March 10 rocket, nan Mengzhou unit spacecraft, nan lunar lander Lanyue and nan lunar landing suits, are each complete," said Lin Xiqiang, lawman head of CMSEO. "Their prototype accumulation and tests are successful afloat swing."
China's crewed satellite landing ngo is portion of nan country's larger scheme to found a robotic and inhabited satellite guidelines nether an inaugural known arsenic nan International Lunar Research Station.
The United States is moving to return astronauts to nan moon pinch its Artemis 3 mission, which has been delayed to nary earlier than September 2026. A study by nan Government Accountability Office successful December 2023 recovered nan ngo is not apt to hap earlier 2027.
