The China Manned Space Agency said on Wednesday that it had concluded the selection of a fourth batch of astronauts to join future space missions.

China planned to choose a total of 12 to 14 trainee astronauts to join its pool of astronauts for future spaceflight missions. The candidates include pilots, flight engineers and payload experts.

It is the first time that payload experts have been selected from Hong Kong and Macao, the two special administrative regions of China.

China started the selection process in 2022, and by August 2023, the second stage of the selection process was complete, with about 20 candidates entering the final round.

Trainee astronauts will go through intense training that normally lasts three and a half years before they are ready to conduct space missions.

China is planning two manned space missions in April and October this year, using the Long March-2F carrier rocket to send the Shenzhou-18 and Shenzhou-19 manned spacecraft to join up with the orbiting China Space Station.

Also in October, Tianzhou-8, an improved large-capacity cargo spacecraft, is scheduled to deliver supplies to the space station.