The first astronauts for China’s new space station are due to blast off for the country’s longest crewed mission to date, a landmark step in establishing Beijing as a major space power.
The trio will launch on a Long March-2F rocket for the Tiangong station, where they will spend three months.
Liftoff is expected at 9.22am local time (1.22am GMT) on Thursday from the Jiuquan launch centre in north-west China’s Gobi desert.
Their Shenzhou-12 spacecraft will dock with the Tianhe main section of the space station, which was placed in orbit on 29 April.
The module has separate living spaces for each of them, a treadmill for exercise, and a communication centre for emails and video calls with ground control.
It is China’s first crewed mission in nearly five years.
The launch represents a matter of huge prestige in China, as Beijing prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist party on 1 July with a massive propaganda campaign.
To prepare for the mission, the crew has…