posted 10-24-2025 09:41 AM               

Shenzhou 21 ship and rocket transferred to the launch area

The combination of the Shenzhou 21 spaceship and a Long March-2F carrier rocket has been transferred to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

All facilities and equipment at the launch site are in good condition, while various pre-launch function checks and joint tests will be carried out as planned.

With the transfer complete, the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center will next conduct functional checks on both the rocket and the spaceship, as well as organize full-system launch drills and joint exercises. Subsequently, the center will proceed with rocket propellant filling and conduct the launch mission as scheduled.

posted 10-30-2025 12:09 PM               

China unveils Shenzhou-21 crew

Chinese astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang will carry out the Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceflight mission, and Zhang Lu will be the commander, the China Manned Space Agency announced at a press conference on Thursday (Oct. 30).

The Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceship is scheduled to be launched at 11:44 p.m. Friday (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, said Zhang Jingbo, spokesperson of the agency.

Above: Chinese astronauts Zhang Lu (at center), Wu Fei (right) and Zhang Hongzhang for the upcoming Shenzhou-21 spaceflight mission, meet the press in Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Oct. 30, 2025.

The three astronauts are a space pilot, a flight engineer, and a payload specialist, respectively, representing the three types of Chinese astronauts in service, he added.

Zhang Lu was a crew member of the Shenzhou-15 mission. Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang, both from the third batch of Chinese astronauts, will carry out the spaceflight mission for the first time.

Before being selected as an astronaut, Wu Fei was an engineer at the China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and Zhang Hongzhang was a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

It has been two years since Zhang Lu last went into space. He told the press on Thursday that his heart is now "filled with excitement and anticipation." He has readjusted to the high-intensity training since the end of the Shenzhou-15 mission, engaging in extensive learning and research focused on the new characteristics of the space station mission.

Zhang Lu revealed that during their six-month stay in orbit, the crew is going to celebrate the Spring Festival in a more surprising and interactive way.

"I hope to use a brand-new method to integrate traditional Chinese culture with aerospace technology," he said, hoping their festival greetings will display the romantic side of Chinese astronauts, aside from their meticulousness.

Wu Fei is the youngest among the Shenzhou-21 crew. As a spaceflight engineer, his responsibilities include looking after the space station, managing its daily affairs, and handling equipment maintenance, repair and upgrades.

"I believe in the saying 'the harder you work, the luckier you get.' Integrating my dream into the country's great space endeavor is the best luck bestowed upon me by the times," he said.

Zhang Hongzhang, a payload specialist, will be in charge of sci-tech application research tasks, involving aerospace medicine, space life science, space material science, space microgravity physics, space new technology and application, and other fields.

He will conduct experimental procedures, perform observations, acquire data, and carry out data processing and analysis.

He has long been engaged in the research on new energy and new materials. Additionally, he will be able to work on his own research project during the mission. "It is a long-cherished dream of every payload specialist to bring self-designed experiments to the space station," he said.

There will be 27 new science and application projects for the new crew to do in the space station, covering space life sciences and biotechnology, space medicine, space material science, microgravity fluid physics and combustion, and new space technologies.

The mission also planned in-orbit studies on lithium-ion batteries for space applications, and intelligent computing platforms.

The mission is the sixth manned flight mission since the space station entered the application and development phase, and the 37th flight of China's manned spaceflight program.

The Shenzhou-21 astronauts will complete in-orbit rotation with the Shenzhou-20 crew. They will also perform extravehicular activities (EVAs) and cargo handling, install space debris protection devices, deploy and recover extravehicular payloads and equipment.

They will participate in science education and public welfare activities as well.

During their stay in orbit, the Shenzhou-21 crew will welcome the Tianzhou-10 cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-22 crewed spaceship.

The Shenzhou-20 crew has been in orbit for 188 days and is expected to set a new record for the longest stay in orbit by a Chinese astronaut crew. During the period, the crew fulfilled a total of four EVAs and seven payload entry and exit tasks.

The Shenzhou-20 crew will return to the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region after completing the in-orbit handover with the Shenzhou-21 crew, the spokesperson added.

posted 10-31-2025 04:24 PM               

China launches Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceship

China launched the Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceship on Friday (Oct. 31), sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station on a six-month mission.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

The Shenzhou-21 crew consists of mission commander Zhang Lu, and astronauts Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang. These three astronauts serve as space pilot, flight engineer and payload specialist, respectively, representing all three categories of Chinese astronauts currently being applied in the country's space endeavors.

Zhang Lu also participated in the Shenzhou-15 mission, while Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang are both on their first space mission.

Mice in Space

Notably, four mice have also gone into space along with the Shenzhou-21 crew.

These rodents, two male and two female, are being transported to China's space station to be raised in orbit for five to seven days, marking the country's first scientific experiments involving mammalian models in space.

As a key model animal in the field of life sciences, mice feature several advantages -- high genetic similarity to humans, small body size and short reproductive cycle, and a high amenability to genetic modification, said Huang Kun, an expert from the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

"These traits make them ideal for studying physiological and pathological processes, as well as the growth, development and reproduction of living organisms in space," he said.

The project, jointly led by the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics and the Institute of Zoology, both under the CAS, will involve continuous multi-dimensional video monitoring of the mice throughout their stay in orbit.

The lighting inside the mice experiment facility will turn on at 7 a.m. and off at 7 p.m., maintaining the same circadian rhythm as on Earth, explained Li Tianda, an associate researcher at the Institute of Zoology.

The rodent food is not only nutritionally balanced but also made relatively hard, to reduce crumbs and meet the mice's teeth grinding habit. A directional air flow within the facility is designed to blow hair, feces and other garbage into a collection container, ensuring a clean and hygienic environment for the mice, Li said.

By collecting preliminary data on stress responses and adaptation mechanisms in microgravity, scientists may use these observations to decode how weightlessness and enclosed space influence mice behaviors.

After completing their orbital mission, the "mice astronauts" will return to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-20 spaceship for further analysis.

"The findings will be critical to assessing the feasibility of long-term human survival and reproduction in space, and may also deliver insights beneficial to human health on Earth," Huang said, while noting that the experiment will represent a major step forward in China's space life science research capabilities.

Previous animal experiments conducted in the Chinese space lab involved zebra fish and fruit flies.

During their stay in orbit, Shenzhou-21 crew members are scheduled to carry out a total of 27 new in-orbit experiments, including space life sciences and biotechnology, space medicine, space material science, microgravity fluid physics and combustion, and new space technologies.

Research on the relationship between the origin of genetic codes and chirality, lithium-ion batteries for space applications, and intelligent computing platforms are listed among the planned in-orbit studies to be conducted during this mission.

The crew will also perform extravehicular activities and cargo handling, install space debris protection devices, and deploy and recover extravehicular payloads and equipment. In addition, they will participate in science education and public welfare activities.

This mission is the sixth manned flight mission since the space station entered the application and development phase, and the 37th flight of China's manned spaceflight program.

posted 10-31-2025 06:55 PM               

Shenzhou-21 astronauts enter space station

The three astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou-21 spaceship have entered the country's space station and met with another astronaut trio early Saturday morning (Nov. 1 Beijing Time), starting a new round of in-orbit crew handover.

The Shenzhou-20 crew opened the hatch at 4:58 a.m. Beijing Time (4:58 p.m. EDT Oct. 31) and greeted the new arrivals, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The six crew members then took group pictures for the seventh space get-together in China's aerospace history.

They will live and work together for about five days to complete planned tasks and handover work, the CMSA said.

Shenzhou-21, after entering orbit, made a fast, autonomous rendezvous and docking with the front port of the space station's core module Tianhe at 3:22 a.m. Beijing Time (3:22 p.m. EDT Oct. 31). The whole process took approximately 3.5 hours, said the CMSA.