Talent transfer to next gen aboard Shenzhou XIX

The three astronauts on China's Shenzhou XIX spaceflight mission have docked at the Tiangong space station and met with the astronauts living there on Wednesday, starting a new round of in-orbit crew handover.

This is a significant journey in that two out of the three astronauts on board were born in the 1990s. Particularly Wang Haoze, one of the two astronauts, worked as a senior engineer with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It shows the importance China attaches to scientific research in astronautics.

The team's commander, Cai Xuzhe, was part of the earlier Shenzhou XIV mission. China already has dozens of serving astronauts and now the team has a balanced mix of experienced and new members.

During their stay in Tiangong, apart from carrying out the scheduled experiments, the three astronauts will also receive the Tianzhou 8 cargo ship, which will arrive with supplies for them, and, later, Shenzhou XX, which will arrive with a new crew that will replace them. The technologies involved in the two missions are not new, but they will be further tested this time so as to be mature enough to form a stabler loop in which Tiangong will be a long-term base for astronauts in space.