JIUQUAN: China sent a fresh crew to its Tiangong space station on Thursday, in the latest mission for a growing space programme that plans to send people to the Moon by 2030.

The Shenzhou-17 blasted off from the Jiuquan launch site in northwest China at 11:14am, carrying a three-astronaut team with the youngest average age since the space station’s construction.

At a farewell ceremony, hundreds of supporters waving the Chinese national flag and clutching yellow flowers cheered on the three astronauts — wearing white and blue spacesuits — as they were introduced to the crowds.

The patriotic song “Ode to the Motherland” was sung as the space travellers walked slowly down a short pathway between the crowds, smiling and waving goodbye before boarding a bus to the launch site. Captaining the crew is Tang Hongbo, who is on his first return mission to the space station.

Accompanying him are Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin, both in their thirties and each making maiden space voyages. The all-male crew is the youngest ever to man a mission to the space station, with an average age of 38.

They are set to “perform various in-orbit space science and application payload tests and experiments”, Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, said on Wednesday. They will also conduct some maintenance work on the station to fix some “minor damages” from space debris, he said.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2023