China Launches Manned Spacecraft with its First Civilian Astronaut on Board

China launched its first civilian astronaut into space on Tuesday. This civilian astronaut is part of a crewed mission to the Tiangong space station, declared China’s Manned Space Agency. Till now all Chinese astronauts, who had traveled into space are from People’s Liberation Army.

The first civilian astronaut of China is Payload expert Gui Haichao. He is a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China Manned Space Agency Spokesperson Lin Xiqiang told reporters on Monday. Gui’s university, known as Beihang University in English, said he hailed from an “ordinary family” in western Yunnan province.

Gui will be “mainly responsible for the on-orbit operation of space science experimental payloads”, Lin said.

The commander of this space mission is Jing Haipeng, who will take up his fourth mission into space. The third crew member is engineer Zhu Yangzhu. They took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China on Tuesday at 9:31 am (0131 GMT), the Manned Space Agency said.

China is planning to have a base on the Moon and the country’s National Space Administration said it aims to launch a crewed lunar mission by 2029.