Shenzhou 18 () was a 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 ...

, launched on 25 April 2024. It carried three

People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps The People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps (PLAAC; ), also known as the Chinese Astronaut Corps (), is a Beijing-based deputy-corps grade People's Liberation Army Aerospace Force (PLAASF) and is responsible for the selection and training of ...

(PLAAC) taikonauts on board a Shenzhou spacecraft. The mission was the thirteenth crewed Chinese spaceflight and the eighteenth 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 ...

. The three crew members in this mission contributed to breaking the record for the most people (19) simultaneously in orbit, set after the Soyuz MS-26 mission launched on 11 September with its three crew members, along with the four crew members of the private

Polaris Dawn Polaris Dawn was a Private spaceflight, private crewed spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman, the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program. Launched 10 September 2024 as the 14th crewed orbital flight ...

mission launched on 10 September, and the nine crew members on the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

Background

Shenzhou 18 is the seventh flight to the

, and is expected to last approximately 6 months. It will depart following the arrival of the

Shenzhou 19 Shenzhou 19 () was a Chinese spaceflight to the Tiangong space station that was launched on 29 October 2024 and returned to Earth on 30 April 2025. It carried three crew members on board a Shenzhou spacecraft. The mission was the 14th crewed C ...

crew. The crew of Shenzhou 18 was announced on April 24, 2024.

Mission

The mission launched 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 on 25 April 2024 at 12:59:00

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

(20:59

China Standard Time The time in China follows a single standard UTC offset, time offset of UTC+08:00, where Beijing is located, even though the country spans five geographical time zones. It is the largest sovereign nation in the world that officially observes only ...

), near the end of the Shenzhou 17 mission. Approximately 6.5 hours after launch, the spacecraft docked at the nadir port of the station's ''Tianhe'' core module.

Spacewalks

On 28 May 2024, Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu carried out China's longest

spacewalk Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environme ...

to date, exiting the airlock of the ''Wentian'' lab module and spending approximately 8.5 hours installing

space debris Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in spaceprincipally in Earth orbitwhich no longer serve a useful function. These include dere ...

protection shields and inspecting the exterior of the station. Another spacewalk was conducted on 3 July 2024, during which Ye Guangfu and Li Cong installed further space debris protection shields on pipelines, cables, and other equipment.

Return

Shenzhou 18 successfully returned to Earth at 17:24 UTC on 3 November 2024.https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/chinas-shenzhou-18-astronauts-return-to-earth-today-after-6-months-in-space

Crew

Commander Ye Guangfu is the second person to visit the station twice, having previously flown to Tiangong on

Shenzhou 13 Shenzhou 13 () was a Chinese spaceflight to the Tiangong space station, launched on 15 October 2021. It carried three People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps (PLAAC) taikonauts on board a Shenzhou spacecraft. The mission was the eighth crew ...

References

{{Portal bar, China, Spaceflight 2024 in China Shenzhou program Tiangong program 2024 in spaceflight Space missions