REUTERSChina's Shenzhou-21 space rocket and its crew including the youngest member of its astronaut corps blasted off on Friday atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, Chinese state media reported. It was the seventh mission to the permanently inhabited Chinese space station since it was completed in 2022. Missions on China's Shenzhou-21 spacecraft involve trios of astronauts on six-month stays in space, with veteran astronauts increasingly replaced by younger faces. FIRST SMALL MAMMALS ON SPACE STATIONThe Shenzhou-21 astronauts will take over from the Shenzhou-20 crew who had lived and worked on board Tiangong, or "Heavenly Palace", for more than six months. The Shenzhou-21 crew were also joined by four black mice, the first small mammals to be taken to the Chinese space station.

Source: bd News24 November 01, 2025 07:54 UTC