China launches Shenzhou-23 for year‑long Tiangong mission

China successfully launched the crewed spacecraft Shenzhou-23 on 24 May 2026 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center using a Long March‑2F rocket. The three‑person crew – commander Zhu Yangzhu, pilot Zhang Yuanzhi (also reported as Zhang Zhiyuan), and payload specialist Li Jiaying (also reported as Lai Ka‑ying), the first astronaut from Hong Kong – docked autonomously with the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong space station about three and a half hours after launch.

One astronaut will remain aboard Tiangong for up to a year, marking China’s longest crewed spaceflight to date. The mission will conduct more than a hundred scientific experiments in biology, fluid dynamics, medicine and new technologies, gathering data on human physiology in prolonged microgravity to support China’s goal of a crewed lunar landing by 2030. The flight is the 40th crewed operation of China’s space program and the seventh mission in the current Tiangong operational phase.