China sends youngest astronaut and mice to space station

A crew of three Chinese astronauts, including the nations youngest ever, successfully docked with the Tiangong space station early Saturday, November 1, accompanied by an unusual group of passengers: four lab mice. According to Xinhua News Agency, the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft docked with Tiangong at 3:35 a.m. Saturday (1935 GMT Friday, October 31), nearly four hours after launching from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China aboard a Long March-2F rocket. The Tiangong space station, which houses rotating three-person crews every six months, represents the crown jewel of Chinas ambitious space programme, a project into which Beijing has poured billions of dollars as it races to rival the United States and Russia in space exploration. China aims to send astronauts to the Moon before 2030 and ultimately establish a lunar base, marking a bold step toward what President Xi Jinping has called the countrys space dream. The Shenzhou-21 crew consists of mission commander Zhang Lu, a veteran space pilot; flight engineer Wu Fei, aged 32, Chinas youngest astronaut to ever undertake a mission; and payload specialist Zhang Hongzhang, 39. The trio bid farewell to their families and colleagues at the launch base in the Gobi Desert, waving as a military band played a patriotic anthem. We will report back to our motherland and its people with complete success, Commander Zhang Lu told reporters before launch. First-time astronaut Wu Fei expressed his excitement at the opportunity, saying he felt incomparably lucky. Joining the astronauts aboard Shenzhou-21 are four mice, two male and two female, as part of Chinas first in-orbit biological experiments involving rodents. Scientists hope the research will offer new insights into how prolonged space conditions affect mammals. Beijings space program, which became the third in history to send humans into orbit after the United States and the Soviet Union, has rapidly advanced in recent years. It celebrated major milestones such as the Change-4 probe landing on the far side of the Moon in 2019, and the successful deployment of a Mars rover in 2021. The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced Thursday that it is conducting crucial upcoming tests in preparation for the 2030 Moon landing mission. In addition to scientific research, the Shenzhou-21 astronauts will carry out spacewalks and install anti-debris shields on Tiangongs exterior to safeguard it from space junk. The CMSA also said the mission includes a popular science education component, aimed at inspiring young people and expanding international collaboration in space exploration. China has been barred from participating in the International Space Station (ISS) since 2011, when the United States Congress banned NASA from cooperating with Beijing due to national security concerns. In response, China has sought to build partnerships with other nations, signing an agreement with Pakistan in February 2025 to recruit the first foreign taikonauts, a move symbolising Beijings growing ambition to lead a new era of global space cooperation.The post China sends youngest astronaut and mice to space station appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.