JIUQUAN, China - China launched its Shenzhou-23 manned spaceship Sunday night, aiming to have one astronaut stay for a year-long mission instead of the usual six-month stint, amid a continuing space development race between Beijing and Washington.
The Long March 2F rocket, carrying three astronauts in the spaceship, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province.
The Shenzhou-23 mission included the first Hong Konger to join a national space mission. Lai Ka-ying, a payload specialist, became China's fourth woman in space.
According to Hong Kong authorities, Lai is a superintendent in the semiautonomous Chinese region's police force and a computer forensics expert.
The crew will undertake more than 100 scientific research projects and application experiments on subjects including life sciences, aerospace medicine and new aerospace technologies, Chinese state-run media said Saturday.
As part of China's growing space capabilities and commitment to advancing long-term human presence, one of the three crew members is expected to carry out a one-year in-orbit residency experiment aboard the Tiangong space station.
Since the completion of the space station in 2022, crew members have served only six-month stints on previous missions.
The launch of Shenzhou-23 came at a time when China and the United States aim to land astronauts on the Moon in the coming years.
In April, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Artemis II mission marked the first crewed lunar flyby in more than five decades after making the farthest journey from Earth in human history.
The China Manned Space Agency has set a 2030 target for its first crewed lunar landing, while NASA aims to build a permanent human presence on and around the Moon over the next decade.
Last month, China announced that two Pakistani astronauts had been chosen to train for a mission to the Tiangong space station later this year. According to state-run media, after they complete all training and evaluations, one of them will become the first foreign astronaut on board the Chinese space station.
