"China's Shenzhou-21 spaceship launched Friday, carrying its youngest astronaut and small mammals to the country's orbiting space station. The Tiangong space station, crewed by rotating teams of three astronauts, is the centerpiece of China's multibillion-dollar space program. Beijing aims to send astronauts to the moon by the decade's end and eventually build a lunar base, in a bid to rival the US and Russian space programs."
"Also onboard the spacecraft are four mice, the first time China is sending the small mammals to the space station. They will be monitored to study how weightlessness and confinement affect their behavioral patterns. The "space mice" were selected from 300 candidates after more than 60 days of intensive training, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency. The astronauts plan to conduct 27 experiments in fields such as biotechnology, space medicine and materials science."
Shenzhou-21 launched from the Jiuquan center carrying three astronauts and four mice to the Tiangong space station. The crew includes first-time astronauts Zhang Hongzhang and 32-year-old engineer Wu Fei, China's youngest astronaut, led by Commander Zhang Lu. The four mice will be monitored to study how weightlessness and confinement affect behavior; the "space mice" were selected from 300 candidates after over 60 days of training. The astronauts will conduct 27 experiments in biotechnology, space medicine and materials science. Tiangong was built entirely by China after exclusion from the International Space Station. China aims to land astronauts on the moon by 2030 and establish a lunar base.
Read at www.dw.com
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