New three taikonauts – Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie, and Jiang Xinlin – launched yesterday 26 October to space for a six-month mission aboard the Tiangong space station. This Shenzhou 17 crew joided the Shenzhou 16 crew, that has been in space from 30 May.
Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu, and Gui Haichao of Shenzhou-16 will land back to Earth on 31 October, if all goes as planned.
The Shenzhou 16 mission is Commander Jing Haipeng's fourth trip to space, a new record for China. Payload specialist Gui Haichao, a professor at Beihang University, became the first Chinese civilian in space. Gui and Zhu are also the first members of Chinese Group 3 to fly to space.
The new mission, Shenzhou 17, is the 12th crewed and 17th flight overall of the Shenzhou program.
Watch the crew launching to space and entering the Tiangong space station on CCTV's YouTube channel.