Astronauts are launching to space to build the Chinese space station.
At 8:22pm CT on Wednesday, June 16 (or Thursday, June 17 at 9:22am BJT/local time), China will launch three astronauts to the Chinese Space Station’s Tianhe core module. China’s Long March rocket will launch astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center aboard the Shenzou-12 spacecraft.
This marks China’s seventh crewed space mission, since the country’s first successful human launch in 2003. Shenzhou-12, is the first of 11 planned missions that will complete the construction of the Chinese space station by the end of 2022.
As the first visitors to Tianhe, the three Chinese astronauts will stay in space for three months to carry out various scientific tasks.
