Astronauts Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying will carry out China’s Shenzhou-23 manned mission to its space station, with Zhu as the commander, the China Manned Space Agency announced at a press conference on Saturday.
This is the first crew in China composed of astronauts from the third and fourth batches. One of them will stay in the space station for a year.
Zhu, who previously served as the spaceflight engineer of China’s Shenzhou-16 mission, is not only China’s first spaceflight engineer to serve as a mission commander, but also the first astronaut from the third batch to assume this role.
Zhang is a member of the third batch of astronauts.
Lai, the first astronaut from China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), is selected as a payload specialist for the Shenzhou-23 mission. She is the first astronaut from the fourth batch to participate in a Chinese space mission and also the first female payload specialist selected from China’s Hong Kong and Macao SARs.
Both Zhang and Lai will embark on their first journey into space.
