China Prepares For Longest Crewed Mission To New Space Station

JIUQUAN, CHINA - OCTOBER 14: A billboard showing Chinese President Xi Jinping is seen as a bus carrying journalists arrives at the China Manned Space Agency before a pre-launch press conference on October 14, 2021 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, China. The crew of the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft will be carried by a Long March-2F rocket, set to launch to the space station China is building, from the Gobi Desert on October 16 and will stay for six months, the standard for all future missions. It is the second crewed launch this year. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)