'Divine Vessel' to mark China's first human spaceflight since 2016

China, which aims to become a major space faring power by 2030, in May became the second country to put a rover on Mars,two years after landing the first spacecraft on the far side of the moon.

(Subscribe to our Today's Cache newsletter for a quick snapshot of top 5 tech stories. Click to subscribe for free.) A Chinese spacecraft will blast off from the Gobi Desert on a Long March rocket in the coming days, ferrying three men to an orbiting space module for a three-month stay, the first time China has sent humans into space for nearly five years. Shenzhou-12, meaning "Divine Vessel", will be the third of11 missions needed to complete China's space station by 2022. Among them, four will be missions with people on board,potentially propelling up to 12 Chinese astronauts into space -more than the 11 men and women that China has sent since 2003.