China’s Shenzhou 13 to send crew to Tiangong space station for longest space mission yet

China’s Shenzhou 13 spacecraft is set to lift off from a launch centre in the Gobi Desert in northern China in the early hours of October 16, 2021. The team embarking on China’s longest crewed mission yet, includes female astronaut Wang Yaping and her male colleagues Zhai Zhigang and Ye Guangfu, who will spend six months orbiting Earth on the Tiangong space station.