China plans to launch the Shenzhou XXIII manned mission late on Sunday night, sending three crew members — including the nation's first female civilian astronaut and first orbital traveler from Hong Kong — to the Tiangong space station.
Zhang Jingbo, a spokesman for the China Manned Space Agency, said at a news conference on Saturday morning at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China that the three astronauts — mission commander and spaceflight engineer Colonel Zhu Yangzhu, spacecraft pilot Colonel Zhang Zhiyuan, and science payload specialist Lai Ka-ying — will travel aboard the Shenzhou XXIII spacecraft to the Chinese space station, which is orbiting Earth at an altitude of about 400 kilometers.
They will be lifted into space by a Long March 2F carrier rocket scheduled to blast off at 11:08 pm on Sunday from the Jiuquan spaceport, he said.
The rocket's propellant injection work is scheduled to begin later on Saturday at the service tower, while other prelaunch preparations are underway, according to the spokesman, who is also a senior engineer at the space agency.
A notable member of the upcoming mission is Lai, a superintendent and technical specialist with the Hong Kong Police Force. She will become the first female civilian in China to travel into orbit and also the first astronaut from Hong Kong.
Before Lai, three Chinese women — Liu Yang, Wang Yaping and Wang Haoze — had traveled to space, all of them military personnel.
Lai will also become the first member of China's fourth-generation astronaut cohort to participate in a space mission.
The Shenzhou XXIII crew is tasked with operating and maintaining the Tiangong space station, conducting scientific and technological experiments, carrying out spacewalks to install and retrieve equipment, and taking part in educational activities. Their journey will mark China's 17th manned spaceflight and the 11th crewed mission to the Tiangong station.
The Chinese space station is currently occupied by the Shenzhou XXI crew — mission commander Senior Colonel Zhang Lu, spaceflight engineer Major Wu Fei and payload specialist Zhang Hongzhang — who arrived on Nov 1 and are scheduled to return around the end of this month.
