Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center — China was set to launch its Shenzhou-21 spacecraft on Friday, carrying a new three-person crew to man the country’s own Tiangong space station on a mission focused on scientific research. The replacement crew includes China’s youngest-ever taikonaut — as China’s space program calls its astronauts — and, for the first time since Beijing launched its program, it will also include live mammals.The Shenzhou-21 and its crew were to blast off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China just before midnight on Friday, or at about 11 a.m. Eastern.The taikonauts on board will be Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang, who will rotate in so the trio currently on board the Chinese space station from the previous Shenzhou-20 mission, which launched on April 24, can come back home after their six-months in space. The exact date of their return has yet to be announced.The Shenzhou-21 crew are scheduled to conduct a total of 27 scientific and applied research projects during their mission, focusing on multiple fields including space life sciences, biotechnology, space medicine, space materials science, microgravity fluid physics and combustion and new space technologies, according to information provided by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).Along with the taikonauts, Shenzhou-21 will carry four mice — two females and two males — the first live mammals ever carried by China into space. Two previous missions to the Tiangong station carried live fish. The taikonauts will study the effects of microgravity and confined space conditions on the behavioral patterns of mice.The Shenzhou-21 crew, with Lu as their commander are scheduled to live aboard the space station for approximately six months, just like the crew they are replacing. It won’t be the first visit to the station for Lu, who previously served on the Shenzhou-15 mission. The other two crew members are making their first spaceflight, and Flight Engineer Wu, born in 1993, will be the youngest taikonaut ever sent into space by his nation.”I feel incomparably lucky,” he told reporters Thursday. “Being able to integrate my personal dreams into the glorious journey of China’s space program is the greatest fortune this era has bestowed upon me.”Crowds gathered around the Jiuquan launch site on Friday ahead of the countdown, and a man who identified himself to CBS News only as Mr. Zhao said he was “very excited” to be there with his 7-year-old son, “hoping to plant the seed of a space dream into his heart.” China’s growing “space dream”China has ramped up its space program unilaterally since being excluded from the International Space Station project — largely over the U.S. government’s concerns about the Chinese military’s full control over its program — to achieve its “space dream” under President Xi Jinping.It has manned the Tiangong station since 2021, and there are now plans to bring the first non-Chinese crewmember aboard the facility.China will arrange for one Pakistani national to undertake a short-term space mission in the future, the CMSA has said, following the signing of a cooperation agreement between the two countries in February.The process to select a Pakistani national for training has already begun, along with planning for training programs and to prepare logistical support for Pakistanis under consideration.Following the selection process, two Pakistani nationals will travel to China to train alongside Chinese taikonauts for future missions, the CMSA said. CMSA spokesperson Zhang Jingbo said during a news conference this week ahead of the Shenzhou-21 launch that China would welcome international partners to participate in missions aboard its space station.The work done on China’s space station coincides with and often compliments the nation’s efforts to be the first nation to land a person on the moon’s surface in more than 40 years. Chinese officials have made it a public goal to land taikonauts on the moon’s surface by 2030, and eventually to build a lunar base.China has already landed unmanned probes on the moon, including the first ever to land and collect samples from the celestial body’s far side just last year. “Overall, the research and construction has been running smoothly, with China aiming to achieve the goal of landing Chinese astronauts on the moon before 2030,” Zhang said this week ahead of the looming Shenzhou launch, indicating that the CMSA remains on track to meet its lunar goals.
