China will send three men into space on Thursday in its first crewed mission in nearly five years, part of an ambitious plan to complete a space station by the end of next year.
China is expected to launch the Shenzhou-12 at 9:22am (01:22 GMT) on Thursday from Jiuquan in northwestern Gansu province, an official at the China Manned Space Agency said on Wednesday.
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The astronauts are Nie Haisheng, 56, Liu Boming, 54, and Tang Hongbo, 45, Ji Qiming, assistant director at the China Manned Space Agency, told reporters. Nie will be the oldest person that China has sent into space.
Shenzhou-12, meaning “Divine Vessel”, will be the third of 11 missions needed to complete China’s space station by 2022.
At least four of the 11 planned missions will be manned, possibly putting up to 12 Chinese astronauts into space.
China began construction of the space station this year with the launch of Tianhe – the first and largest of the station’s three modules – in late April.
The Shenzhou-12 crew will live on the Tianhe, which means “Harmony of the Heavens”, a cylinder 16.6 metres (55 feet) long and 4.2 metres (14 feet) in diameter, for three months.
Nie, who comes from central Hubei province and is a former air force pilot, will lead the mission.
The Shenzhou-12 will be Nie’s third space outing, after the Shenzhou-6 mission in 2005 and the Shenzhou-10 mission in 2013, according to the Xinhua news agency.
It will be Liu’s second mission to space, his first being the Shenzhou-7 mission in 2008, which featured a landmark spacewalk. It will be Tang’s first journey in space.
There are also three backup astronauts for the mission.
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