China sent three astronauts to its permanently inhabited space station on Thursday in its 15th crewed spaceflight and 20th overall in the Shenzhou program that started more than three decades ago. The spacecraft Shenzhou-20 and the crew lifted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China at 5:17 p.

China has launched three astronauts into space to replace the crew on the Chinese Tiangong space station, marking a further step in the country’s ambitions for a crewed mission to the moon and exploration of Mars.

A Long March-2F carrier rocket, carrying the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft and a crew of three astronauts, lifts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi desert, in northwest China on 24 April, 2025 (Pedro Pardo / AFP)