Every April 24, China celebrates the Space Day, an occasion to commemorate the country's achievements in its quest for space exploration.

In honor of the occasion, let's look at the highlights of China's 2023 space missions in this episode of Tech Breakdown.

China has announced three manned space program missions. The Shenzhou-15 crew is currently stationed at China's space station. They recently completed their fourth spacewalk and will return to Earth in June.

The space station will welcome the Tianzhou-6 cargo spacecraft in May. The spacecraft has already been transported to the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province.

As planned, the Shenzhou-16 and Shenzhou-17 manned spacecraft will be launched in May and October, respectively, and will dock with China's space station to form a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.

In addition to the manned space program, China will also continue with the research and development of the Chang'e-7 mission of the fourth phase of its lunar exploration project, and the Tianwen-2 mission of its planetary exploration project this year.

According to plans, the Chang'e-7 is set to land on the moon's South Pole around 2026 to find traces of water, investigate the environment, and survey the landform on the moon. And the Tianwen-2 mission is scheduled to be launched around 2025 and will deploy a probe on a selected asteroid to collect samples and bring them back.

The country has already completed some space missions, including satellite launches, the launch of the Long March-11 carrier rocket, and launches of commercial rockets.

There will be more exciting news from space in the rest of the year. Stay tuned for more about China's aerospace industry.

Videographer: Li Bancheng

Video editor: Zeng Hongen

Cover image: Li Wenyi