China sends its youngest astronaut to 'Heavenly Palace' space station

China's Shenzhou-21 space rocket and its crew, including the youngest member of its astronaut corps, blasted off on Oct 31 atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, the Chinese state media reported.

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It was the seventh mission to the permanently inhabited Chinese space station Tiangong since it was completed in 2022.

Missions on China's Shenzhou-21 spacecraft involve trios of astronauts on six-month stays in space, with veteran astronauts increasingly replaced by younger faces.

First-timers Zhang Hongzhang, 39, and Wu Fei, 32 - China's youngest astronaut to be sent to space - were picked to participate in the programme in 2020.