China to send youngest crew, including nuclear rocket scientist, to space station

Wang, 34, is the only female space flight engineer in China, according to the agency. She will become the third Chinese woman to take part in a crewed space flight mission, after Liu Yang who was in the Shenzhou-9 and 14 crews, and Wang Yaping, of Shenzhou-10 and 13.

Lin told the press conference Wang was a senior engineer at the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. There she designed nuclear-powered rocket engines, according to a paper seen by the South China Morning Post.

Song, also 34, was a former air force pilot before becoming an astronaut. They will be the youngest Chinese astronauts in space.

The Shenzhou-19 spaceship, sitting atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, will launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwestern China at 4.27am on Wednesday. It is expected to return in late April or early May.

Ren Fengjie, an official with the launch centre’s meteorological department, told Chinese state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday the launch window was decided based on weather forecasts for the launch site and surrounding areas and real-time weather data analysis, and was scheduled to take advantage of low nighttime temperatures at the launch site.