Arriving Shenzhou-23 Astronauts Welcomed Aboard | China Space Station
The three astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou-23 spacecraft entered the country's Tiangong Space Station and met with their astronaut colleagues early Monday morning, as they now begin an in-orbit crew handover.
Mission commander Zhu Yangzhu and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Li Jiaying successfully entered the station's core module Tianhe after the spacecraft made a fast automated rendezvous and docked with the Tianhe module at 02:45 (Beijing Time) on Monday, May 25, 2026.
Li Jiaying, also known as Lai Ka-ying in Cantonese, is the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR).
The three Shenzhou-21 crew members opened the hatch at 05:13 (Beijing Time) and greeted the new arrivals, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
The six astronauts then took group pictures for the eighth in-orbit get-together in China's aerospace history.
Notably, one of the Shenzhou-23 crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.
The Shenzhou-23 spacecraft, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC) in northwest China at 23:08 (Beijing Time) on Sunday.
Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's crewed spaceflight program and the seventh crewed flight mission since the Tiangong Space Station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.
Zhu Yangzhu 朱杨柱, Commander & Flight Engineer (second spaceflight)
Zhang Zhiyuan 张志远, Pilot (first spaceflight)
Duration: 1 minute
Date: May 25, 2026
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