China Sends 3 Astronauts to Tiangong Station in Crew Rotation

China successfully launched three astronauts on Thursday aboard the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft to replace the current crew aboard the Tiangong space station, reinforcing its long-term goals of sending crewed missions to the moon and eventually to Mars.

The mission lifted off at 5:17 p.m. local time (0917 GMT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, located on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China. The spacecraft was propelled into orbit by the Long March 2F rocket, a mainstay of China’s human spaceflight program.

The Shenzhou 20 is expected to dock with the Tiangong space station approximately 6.5 hours after liftoff. The new crew will take over operations before the current team returns to Earth. This launch marks another milestone in China’s rapidly advancing space exploration efforts.