British News Agency

The China Manned Space Engineering Office has announced that the Shenzhou-17 manned spacecraft will be launched into space on October 26 at 11:14 Beijing time. The crew of the Shenzhou-17 manned spacecraft consists of three astronauts named Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie, and Jiang Xinlin. This team is the youngest crew assigned since the beginning of China's space station program.

Among the main objectives of the six-month Shenzhou-17 mission are conducting a crew rotation with the Shenzhou-16 crew, performing practical experiments in space science, and carrying out maintenance on the space station. The Shenzhou-17 crew will rendezvous with the Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft during their six-month mission. The return of the Shenzhou-17 manned spacecraft to Earth is expected in April of next year.