China's home grown Long March rocket will send the Shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft, carrying astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, to the Chinese Space Station's core module Tianhe at 9:22 a.m. BJT, or 1:22 a.m. GMT, on Thursday from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It will be China's seventh crewed space mission, since the country's first successful manned launch in 2003.
Shenzhou-12, the first manned mission in China's 11 planned missions – namely three launches of space station modules, four cargo vessel flights, and four manned missions – to complete the construction of its space station by the end of 2022. As the first visitors to Tianhe, three Chinese astronauts will stay in space for three months to carry out various scientific tasks.
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