First-time space visitors Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu are on board, along with veteran Fei Junlong. Fey, 57, is back in space for the first time in 17 years.

Tiangong had previously had three people who had been there since June. When they return to Earth in December, China will complete its first personnel change in orbit.

The last step before the finished space station

The crew already there will remain to test the space station’s ability to house more than three taikonauts (Chinese astronauts). Within a week Before they leave their colleagues.

This is the eleventh and final space mission to complete the space station. It will then be in use for a decade and allow China to conduct various experiments in near-zero gravity.

China was excluded from the International Space Station in 2011, but will now be the second permanently manned outpost in space.

Like other countries, China has plans for further activities in space and has previously succeeded in taking a rover to the Moon and Mars. In the coming years, they want to take samples from a near-Earth asteroid and send taikonauts to the moon, among other things.