China is preparing to send the youngest crew in its history to the Tiangong (Sky Palace) space station. The taikonauts will be on average four years younger than the participants in the previous mission. This was reported by portal Phys.org, with reference to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.
The station is staffed by teams of three taikonauts, which change every six months.
The Shenzhou 17 module, which will carry the next crew to Tiangong, is scheduled to lift off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China on October 26.
The male trio will be led by Tang Hongbo, who is returning to the space station for the first time.
“Over the past two years, I have often dreamed of returning to space,” Tang Hongbo told reporters at a news conference.
He will be accompanied by Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin. The average age of the crew was 38, while the age of the Shenzhou 16 crew at the time of launch was 42.
Tiangong is expected to remain in low Earth orbit at an altitude of 400 to 450 kilometers above the planet for at least 10 years.
happened before knownIt was announced that Russian cosmonauts will spend a record time of 375 days on the International Space Station.