Watch China launch 3 astronauts toward its Tiangong space station today

Watch live! China's Shenzhou 21 crew launches to Tiangong space station - YouTube

China will launch three astronauts toward its Tiangong space station today (Oct. 31), and you can watch the action live.

You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of CCTV, or directly via the network.

Shenzhou 21 will send three astronauts — Zhang Lu, Zhang Hongzhang and Wu Fei — to China's Tiangong space station in low Earth orbit.

Zhang Lu, 48, will command the mission. He's an off-Earth veteran, having also flown to Tiangong on the Shenzhou 15 mission in November 2022. Zhang Hongzhang, 39, and Wu, 32, will be making their spaceflight debuts.

Wu will make history today, becoming the youngest Chinese astronaut ever to reach space.

"As the youngest member of China's Astronaut Corps, I feel extremely fortunate to embark on my spaceflight mission," Wu said during a press conference at Jiuquan on Thursday (Oct. 30). "I owe my good fortune to the era we live in, which is seeing leapfrog development in China's aerospace industry."

The three astronauts will spend about six months aboard Tiangong — the usual stint for visitors to China's orbiting outpost.

They'll conduct a variety of scientific experiments during that stretch, including research with mice. That will be a first for China, which has never sent rodents to Tiangong before. The trio will also perform spacewalks and conduct public outreach activities, among other tasks.

Shenzhou 21 will be the 10th crewed flight to Tiangong, a three-module station that China finished building in October 2022. The mission will take over for Shenzhou 20, whose three astronauts are scheduled to come back to Earth on Nov. 3.

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Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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