China to launch first crew to new space station on Thursday

A Long March-2F carrier rocket, carrying the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft for China's first crewed mission to its new space station, scheduled for June 17, sits on the launch pad encased in a shield at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi desert in northwest China

Astronauts blasting off on Thursday for China's first crewed mission to its new space station will have a choice of 120 different types of food and ‘space treadmills’ for exercise, China's space agency said. The mission will be China's longest crewed space mission to date and the first in nearly five years, as Beijing pushes forward with its ambitious programme to establish itself as a space power. The astronauts will spend three months on the Tiangong station, which has separate living modules for each of them as well as a shared bathroom, dining area, and a communication centre to send emails and allow video calls with ground control. The trio will be able to work off their range of dinner options -- which officials assured reporters were all nutritious and tasty -- on the special treadmills or exercise bikes.