#神舟二十三号出征# China on Sunday successfully launched the Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship, which sent three astronauts to its orbiting Tiangong space station for new tests on long-duration stay and frontier scientific experiments.
The Shenzhou-23 crew consists of mission commander Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan, and Li Jiaying (Lai Ka-ying in Cantonese). The three astronauts are, respectively, a flight engineer, a spacecraft pilot, and a payload specialist. Li has made history as the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to travel to space. She is also the country's fourth woman astronaut to reach space, following Liu Yang, Wang Yaping and Wang Haoze.
The three astronauts have entered the Tiangong space station and met with another astronaut trio on Monday, starting a new round of in-orbit crew handover. The Shenzhou-23 crew will conduct more than 100 new science and application projects, focusing on frontier fields such as space life science, materials science, microgravity fluid physics, aerospace medicine, and new space technologies. (Photo by Xinhua/Jin Liwang, Source: Xinhua)