China to send three astronauts to its space station in June

A Long March 7 rocket carrying the Tianzhou-2 spacecraft lifts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in Wenchang in southern China’s Hainan Province (Chinatopix via AP)

A three-man crew of astronauts will blast off in June for a three-month mission on China’s new space station, according to a space official.

The plans for the station’s first crew were confirmed to state television by Yang Liwei, the manned space programme’s deputy chief designer, as an automated spacecraft was launched with fuel and supplies for the Tianhe station.