China is preparing to launch its first manned mission to its new, orbiting space station.
The China Manned Space Engineering Office said it moved the Long March-two-F Y1-twelve rocket, carrying the Shenzhou-twelve spacecraft to the launch pad as of yesterday in preparation for its first crewed mission into space.
The astronauts will stay in space for three months during which they will do a range of tasks from science experiments to maintenance.
This will be the third of eleven space missions planned by China to complete its space station by the end of 2021.