China to launch Shenzhou-17 crewed space mission on October 26
The Shenzhou-17 crewed spaceship is scheduled to be launched at 11:14am on Thursday (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, announced the China Manned Space Agency on Wednesday.
Chinese astronauts Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie, and Jiang Xinlin will carry out the Shenzhou-17 manned spaceflight mission, and Tang Hongbo will be the commander, said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA.
It is the first time that the spaceflight team consists of one veteran from China's second batch of astronauts and two space rookies from the third batch of astronauts.
After joining the second batch of Chinese astronauts in 2010, Tang Hongbo flew to space for the first time in the three-month Shenzhou-12 mission in June 2021, the first crewed mission for China's space station construction. He received a third-class medal and the honorary title "heroic astronaut" in November 2021.
As the commander of the Shenzhou-17 mission, Tang Hongbo will be the first astronaut to return to China's space station. He also set a new record for the shortest interval between two spaceflight missions by Chinese astronauts.
Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin are new comers to space. They joined China's third batch of astronauts in September 2020.
China will launch an extension module at an appropriate time and upgrade the basic configuration of the space station from the current T shape to a cross shape.
The extension module will install space science experiment cabinets and large extra-vehicular experiment equipment in multiple fields with expanded application scale to meet the new needs of space science research and application.
The space station will also upgrade the facilities and equipment related to astronauts' in-orbit protection, exercise, diet and hygiene to improve the support level of their work, life and health.
The CMSA also plans to launch a space-survey telescope to stay in the same orbit as the space station for wide-field space observation, he added.