China to overtake US, Russia in space race? Beijing to send youngest astronaut to Tiangong space station on…

China's Tiangong space station -- crewed by rotating teams of three astronauts that are exchanged every six months-- is considered the crown jewel of the country's space programme.

China Space Station: China, which has made huge technological leaps in the past few decades, includes in space technology, is now poised to overtake the United States and Russia in the space race as it launches the next manned mission, which will include the country’s youngest astronaut, to its Tiangong space station, on Friday.

Who is China’s youngest astronaut?

According to Chinese media reports, 32-year-old flight engineer Wu Fei, will be part of a three-member mission under the command of veteran space pilot Zhang Lu, 48, who took part in the Shenzhou-15 mission more than two years ago, while payload specialist Zhang Hongzhang, 39, will be the third member of the crew.

Wu Fei, who recently turned 32, will script history as youngest Chinese astronaut to undertake a space mission, when the Shenzhou-21 mission blasts off at 11:44 pm on Friday (1544 GMT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, according to China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) spokesperson Zhang Jingbo, AFP reported.

“I feel incomparably lucky. Being able to integrate my personal dreams into the glorious journey of China’s space programme is the greatest fortune this era has bestowed upon me,” Fei told reporters on Thursday.

China’s big push in space race

The three-member crew will be accompanied by four mice, who will serve as subjects of China’s first in-orbit experiments on rodents, CMSA spokesperson Zhang was quoted as saying.

Commander Zhang Lu expressed confidence that he and his team would “report back to our motherland and its people with complete success”.

China’s Tiangong space station — crewed by rotating teams of three astronauts that are exchanged every six months– is considered the crown jewel of the country’s space programme, with Beijing pouring billions of dollars into the project to in an attempt to catch up, and eventually surpass, space tech bigwigs, the US and Russia.

How China plans to conquer space?

Notably, in recent years, China has ramped up efforts to achieve its “space dream” under President Xi Jinping, and Beijing’s space programme, the third to put humans in orbit, has also landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon.

China aims to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2030, and also intends to construct a base on the lunar surface, which will reportedly be powered by nuclear power plant to be built in collaboration with Russia.

According to reports, China’s Chang-E-7 mission will head to the moon in 2026 to search for water on the lunar south pole, while a manned mission is planned for 2030, and a permanent research base, known as the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), along with a lunar colony, is expected to be operational by 2035.