(Xinhua)
Chinese astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang will carry out the Shenzhou-21 human spaceflight mission, and Zhang Lu will be its commander, the China Human Spaceflight Agency announced at a press conference on Thursday.
The Shenzhou-21 manned spacecraft is scheduled to be launched at 11:44 p.m. (Beijing Time) on Friday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, said Zhang Jingbo, a spokesperson for the agency.
The three astronauts are space pilot, flight engineer and payload specialist respectively, representing the three types of Chinese astronauts in service, he added.
Zhang Lu was a member of the Shenzhou-15 mission crew. Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang, both from China’s third group of astronauts, will carry out their first space mission.
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 of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
