Jiuquan, China:
China will send its first civilian astronaut into space on Tuesday as part of a manned mission to the Tiangong space station, the country’s manned space agency said.
“Payload expert Gui Haichao is a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics,” Lin Xiqiang, spokesman for China’s manned space agency, told reporters Monday.
Until now, all Chinese astronauts sent into space have been part of the People’s Liberation Army.
Gui will be “mainly responsible for the operation of experimental payloads in space science,” Lin said.
The mission commander is Jing Haipeng and the third crew member is Zhu Yangzhu.
They will lift off at 9:31 a.m. (0131 GMT) Tuesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, the Manned Space Agency said.
Under President Xi Jinping, plans for China’s “space dream” have gained momentum.
The world’s second-largest economy has invested billions of dollars in its military-led space program, hoping eventually to send humans to the moon.
Beijing is finally trying to catch up with the United States and Russia after years of late meeting their milestones.
China also plans to build a base on the moon, and the country’s National Space Administration said it aims to launch a manned lunar mission by 2029.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)