ON TUESDAY, CHINA WILL LAUNCH THE SHENZHOU-15 SPACECRAFT FROM ITS SPACE STATION.

The Shenzhou-15 spacecraft will be launched to the space station on November 29 at 11:08 p.m. (1508 GMT), according to the China Manned Space Agency, the penultimate mission in the country's goal to complete the crewed orbiting outpost.

Three male astronauts will be aboard: Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming, and Zhang Lu, the agency said at a press briefing.

The three astronauts who arrived in early June will hand over the space station to them within a week.

"During their stay, the Shenzhou-15 crew will greet the arriving Tianzhou-6 cargo spacecraft and hand over the Shenzhou-16 manned spaceship, with plans to return to China's Dongfeng landing site in May next year," said Ji Qiming, an agency official.

"At the moment, the space station combination is stable, with all equipment operational and ready for the rendezvous, docking, and crew transfer," Ji noted.

With the launch of the Tianhe module, the primary living quarters for astronauts, in April 2021, China commenced construction of the three-module space station.

It inaugurated the final two laboratory modules, Wentian and Mengtian, in July and November, where scientific investigations would be conducted.

The construction of the space station, which is expected to last at least ten years, will be a watershed moment in China's ambitions in low-Earth orbit, with NASA's ageing ISS likely shutting down operations by the end of the decade.