China sends its youngest crew to space

A Long March-2F rocket with the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft. Pic/AP

China launched its youngest-ever crew for its orbiting space station on Thursday as it seeks to put astronauts on the moon before 2030.

The Shenzhou 17 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket at 11.14 am.

The trio - Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin - will replace a crew that has been on the station for six months. They will conduct experiments in space medicine, space technology and other areas.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever