China sent three astronauts to its permanently inhabited space station on Thursday, in its 15th crewed spaceflight and the 20th overall in the Shenzhou program that started over three decades ago.

China is making final preparations for the launch of a three-person replacement crew for its orbiting space station that will mark a further step toward a possible crewed mission to the Moon and explo

China has successfully launched three astronauts to its Tiangong space station, marking another step towards a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030.The Shenzhou-20 spacecraft lifted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert on Thursday at 5.