China to send three astronauts to Tiangong space station, part of its ambitious program

By ANDY WONG and SIMINA MISTREANU
Associated Press

JIUQUAN SATELLITE LAUNCH CENTER, China (AP) — China’s space agency is making final preparations to send a new crew to its space station on Thursday as part of its ambitious program that aims to put people on the moon by 2030. The three-member crew of the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft will relieve the current team who have been manning China’s Tiangong space station since last October. The crew will spend about six months conducting various experiments. The three-member crew’s spacecraft is set for lift-off at 1259 GMT from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in the country’s northwest. In a press conference on Wednesday, the agency introduced the three astronauts.