JIUQUAN (AFP) — China will send a fresh crew to its Tiangong space station on Thursday evening, Beijing’s Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced, the latest mission in a program that aims to send astronauts to the Moon by 2030.

The Shenzhou-18 mission — crewed by three astronauts — is scheduled to take off at 8:59 p.m. Thursday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, Beijing announced Wednesday.

It will be led by Ye Guangfu, a fighter pilot and astronaut who was previously part of the Shenzhou-13 crew in 2021.

He will be joined by astronauts Li Cong and Li Guangsu, who are heading into space for the first time.

The latest batch of Tiangong astronauts will stay in orbit for six months, carrying out experiments in gravity and physics, as well as in life sciences.

They will also carry out a “project on high-resolution global greenhouse gas detection,” deputy director general of the CMSA Lin Xiqiang said, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace”, is the crown jewel of a space program that has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon, and made China the third country to independently put humans in orbit.

It is constantly crewed by rotating teams of three astronauts, with construction completed in 2022.

The Tiangong is expected to remain in low Earth orbit at between 400 and 450 kilometers above the planet for at least 10 years.

The new crew will replace the Shenzhou-17 team, who were sent to the station in October.