"The Shenzhou 18 astronauts will carry out six cargo outbound deliveries via the station's cargo airlock module and implement two to three extravehicular activities," Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, said during an April 24 press conference that unveiled the Shenzhou 18 crew.

China on Thursday sent three astronauts to its permanently inhabited space station for a six-month stay, in a regular rotation of Chinese astronauts onboard the "Tiangong" orbiting high above the Earth's atmosphere.

China's Shenzhou 17 astronauts touched down safely this morning (April 30), bringing their six-month mission to a successful close.

Shenzhou 18 is poised to launch on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China on Thursday (April 25) and head to China’s Tiangong space station. The mission's crew were revealed at a press conference at Jiuquan on Wednesday (April 24), also China’s national space day, by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

China’s ambitious space program aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030, as well as bring back samples from Mars around the same year and launch three lunar probe missions over the next four years.