The Shenzhou-17 manned space vehicle, carrying the three youngest astronauts in China’s space history, was launched to the space station from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 11:14 local time. Shenzhou-17, which successfully settled into the determined orbit 10 minutes after launch, will perform rapid docking with China’s space station approximately 6.5 hours after launch. Then, the astronauts will move to China’s Tiangong space station, meet with the other three astronauts, and conduct space science experiments.
The Shenzhou-17 mission is led by 48-year-old former Air Force pilot Tang Hongbo, 33-year-old Tang Shengjie, and 35-year-old Jiang Xinlin. Tang Hongbo previously took part in the space mission in 2008, but the other astronauts are traveling to space for the first time.