Shenzhou 21 () is a planned Chinese spaceflight to the

Tiangong space station Tiangong (), officially the ''Tiangong'' space station (), is a permanently crewed space station constructed by China and operated by China Manned Space Agency. Tiangong is a modular design, with modules docked together while in low Earth o ...

, expected to launch in October 2025. It will carry three

taikonauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserve ...

on board a Shenzhou spacecraft. The mission will be the 16th crewed Chinese spaceflight and the 21st flight overall of the

Shenzhou program Shenzhou may refer to: * Shenzhou, or "Divine Land", one of the Chinese names of China * Shenzhou program, a crewed spaceflight initiative by the People's Republic of China * Shenzhou (spacecraft), spacecraft from China which first carried a Chi ...

Background

Shenzhou 21 is expected to launch in October 2025, prior to the end of the previous mission,

Shenzhou 20 Shenzhou 20 () is a Chinese spaceflight to the Tiangong space station launched on 24 April 2025. It carries three taikonauts on board a Shenzhou spacecraft. The mission is the 15th crewed Chinese spaceflight and the 20th flight overall of the ...

. It will be the 10th flight to the

, and is expected to last approximately 6 months. It will depart following the arrival of the Shenzhou 22 crew in 2026.

Mission

The mission will launch from

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC; also known as Shuangchengzi Missile Test Center; Launch Complex B2; formally Northwest Comprehensive Missile Testing Facility (); Base 20; 63600 Unit) is a Chinese space vehicle launch facility ( spacep ...

on board a

Long March 2F The Long March 2F ( ''Changzheng 2F''), also known as the CZ-2F, LM-2F and Shenjian (, "Divine Arrow"), is a Chinese orbital carrier rocket, part of the Long March 2 rocket family. Designed to launch crewed Shenzhou spacecraft, the Long March ...

rocket. The Shenzhou spacecraft will dock with the forward docking port on the ''Tianhe'' core module of the station, where the crew will enter and take over operations from the departing crew of Shenzhou 20.

Crew

The crew for the Shenzhou 21 mission was selected in February 2025, but as of April 2025 has not been publicly announced.

References

{{Future spaceflights 2025 in China Shenzhou program Tiangong program 2025 in spaceflight Future human spaceflights