China's Shenzhou XXIII ready for launch

China's next crewed space mission, the Shenzhou XXIII, is ready to transport three astronauts to the Tiangong space station, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

All systems involved in the coming mission took part in a joint rehearsal organized by the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, on Friday, completing functional checks on equipment, the agency said in a statement.

The equipment released at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert "are in good condition", and the fuel injection work will begin in due course.

The Shenzhou XXIII spacecraft and its carrier, a Long March 2F rocket, were moved to the service tower at the Jiuquan spaceport on May 16.

The Shenzhou XXIII crew will carry out China's 17th manned spaceflight and will become the 11th group of inhabitants of the Tiangong, which is currently the only operating space station independently run by a single nation.

The Tiangong is now manned by the Shenzhou XXI astronauts — mission commander Senior Colonel Zhang Lu, spaceflight engineer Major Wu Fei, and payload specialist Zhang Hongzhang — who arrived on Nov 1 and are scheduled to return around the end of this month.

The Shenzhou XXII spaceship was used in an emergency response task in late November after an incident where a window was damaged on the Shenzhou XX vessel, becoming an unmanned mission.