A photo taken on May 22, 2023 shows China's Shenzhou XVI manned spacecraft and a Long March 2F Y16 rocket being transferred to the launch area at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert. [Photo by Wang Jiangbo/For chinadaily.com.cn]
The crew members, whose names have yet to be disclosed, will take over the massive orbital outpost from the Shenzhou XV team, which consists of mission commander Major General Fei Junlong, Senior Colonel Deng Qingming and Senior Colonel Zhang Lu, who arrived on Nov 30. By the end of May, Fei's team will have stayed in orbit for six months.
Earlier this month, the Tianzhou 6 robotic cargo spaceship set out from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province to transport materials for the next manned missions, becoming the first spacecraft to visit the Tiangong space station this year.
Orbiting about 400 kilometers above the ground, the Tiangong space station currently consists of three major components, the Tianhe core module and Wentian and Mengtian science lab modules, and is connected to two visiting craft, the Shenzhou XV crew ship and the Tianzhou 6 cargo ship.
