A historic day. China will send a civilian astronaut into space for the first time on Tuesday (May 30) for a manned mission to the Tiangong space station, the China Human Space Flight Agency announced. This astronaut, Gui Haichao, a "payload specialist", is "a professor at the University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Beijing", said Lin Xiqiang, spokesperson for the space agency, at a press conference on Monday. .
Until now, all Chinese astronauts who have taken off into space have been part of the People's Liberation Army. Gui Haichao will be "primarily responsible for the in-orbit management of payloads" dedicated to space science experiments, the spokesperson said. The civilian astronaut will evolve in orbit alongside the commander of the Shenzhou-16 mission, Jing Haipeng, and astronaut Zhu Yangzhu.
The crew is scheduled to take off from the Jiuquan launch base, located in northwest China, at 9:31 a.m. local time (3:31 a.m. in Paris), the space agency said. Projects related to China's "space dream" are on the rise under Xi Jinping's presidency.
The Asian giant has been investing billions of euros in its military-led space program for several decades, which has enabled it to make up most of its delay against the Americans and the Russians.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, and its Tiangong ("Heavenly Palace") space station has been fully operational since late 2022. In 2019, a Chinese craft landed on the far side of the Moon. Then, in 2021, China brought a small robot to the surface of Mars. It plans to send a first crew to the Moon by 2029.
