China’s Shenzhou-23 crewed spacecraft successfully blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country’s northwest on May 24, 2026, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station.
The spacecraft, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, lifted off from the launch site at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT).
The crew members consist of mission commander Zhu Yangzhu, and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Li Jiaying, the first astronaut from China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.