Beijing-Sana
China announced today its intention to send three astronauts, including a woman, to live on its space station for six months.
This is a significant step for China's space program, which has been advancing rapidly in recent years, the Associated Press reported, noting that it will be China's longest manned space mission ever and will set a record for the most time spent by Chinese astronauts in space.
The Shenzhou 13 spacecraft is expected to be launched into space on a Long March rocket early next Saturday from the Jiucheon Satellite Launch Center on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert in northwest China.
The first crew of the Chinese Space Agency returned to Earth last September.