As part of a crewed mission to the Tiangong space station on Tuesday, China will launch its first civilian astronaut into space.
The China Manned Space Agency announced on Monday that payload specialist Gui Haichao will launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Tuesday at 9:31am local time (01:31 GMT).
All of China’s space astronauts up until this point have been members of the People’s Liberation Army.
An official from the space agency told reporters that Gui, a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, will primarily be responsible for the on-orbit operation of space science experimental payloads.
According to state media, engineer Zhu Yangzhu is the third crew member, and the mission’s commander is Jing Haipeng, who is making his fourth trip into space.
With a goal of sending astronauts to the moon by 2030, China has invested billions of dollars into its military-run space program in an effort to catch up to the United States and Russia.
Last year, it finished building Tiangong, its third and permanent space station. In November, the T-shaped Tiangong, whose name translates to “heavenly palace,” successfully docked with the core structure.
According to state news agency Xinhua, the station is home to a number of cutting-edge scientific tools, including “the world’s first space-based cold atomic clock system”.
In order to realize the goal of maintaining a long-term human presence in space, Tiangong is anticipated to stay in low Earth orbit for at least 10 years, between 400 and 450 kilometers (250 and 280 miles) above the planet.
Three-person rotating teams of astronauts will constantly crew it as they carry out scientific research and assist in the testing of cutting-edge technologies.
Beijing declared that it is open to foreign collaboration even though China does not intend to use Tiangong for international cooperation on the same scale as the International Space Station.
Source-Aljazeera
