Beijing reveals new team of astronauts for station launch

Astronauts for the upcoming Shenzhou 20 mission captain Chen Dong, center, Wang Jie, left, and Chen Zhongrui meet with the press at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, yesterday

China announced yesterday the members of a three-person crew that will be launched to its space station as part of its growing exploration of space.

The Shenzhou 20 mission’s astronauts are Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie, Lin Xiqiang, deputy director general of China Manned Space Agency. They will replace three astronauts currently on the Chinese space station. Like those before them, they will stay there for roughly six months.

The three will launch for space tonight in China, from Jiuquan, on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China.

The three-person crew were sent in October last year and have been in space for 175 days, said Lin.

Chen Dong, who previously served on the Shenzhou 11 and Shenzhou 14 missions, is the group leader, while his two crewmates will be making their first trips to space. Chen Zhongrui was an air force pilot and Wang Jie, an engineer with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

“I feel incomparable pride and accomplishment to go to space for my country again,” Chen Dong told reporters yesterday. “Each journey to space is unparalleled, I’m looking forward to gaining more experience and more breakthroughs through this flight.”

Chen Dong led construction of the space station during the Shenzhou 14 mission. MDT/AP