Jing Haipeng (C), Zhu Yangzhu (R) and Gui Haichao, the three astronauts who will carry out China’s Shenzhou-16 spaceflight mission, in this photo released yesterday. The spaceship is scheduled to be launched at 9:31 a.m. today from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China, the China Manned Space Agency announced at a press conference yesterday. Jing will become the country’s first taikonaut to go into space for a fourth time. Zhu and Gui are going to make their first trip to space. Zhu will serve as a spaceflight engineer in the mission while Gui, a professor from Beijing-based Beihang University, will work as a payload expert responsible for the in-orbit operations of science experiment payloads in the country’s Tiangong space station.Xinhua

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