LAUNCH OF CHINA’S SHENZHOU-18, Apr 25, 2024, Jiuquan, China, 8:59 am ET

Update, April 24:  China confirmed today that the launch is tomorrow, April 25, at 8:59 pm Beijing Time (12:59 UTC/8:59 am EDT).  It also announced the crew: Ye Guangfu, commander (2nd flight), Li Cong (1st flight), Li Gaungsu (1st flight).  China’s CGTN network usually provides live launch coverage.

Original Entry: China is getting ready to launch their next crew, Shenzhou-18, to the Tiangong-3 space station (also known as the China Space Station or CSS). As usual, China has not formally announced the date or time (they usually do that a day or so before launch), but Bob Christy of @OrbitalFocus calculates it as April 25 at 12:58 UTC (8:58 am ET).

Launch Advisory

Shenzhou 18
Apr 25, 12:58 UTC
CZ 2F
Jiuquan

Crew of three for space station duty rotation

Time currently computes as 12:58:57 UTC but may move by a few seconds as CSS orbit is trimmed

— Orbital Focus (@OrbitalFocus) April 17, 2024

The launch is one day after China’s National Day of Spaceflight, commemorating the launch of its first satellite, Dongfanghong-1 on April 24, 1970.  The China Society of Astronautics and China Space Foundation are holding the China Space Confererence April 23-26 in Wuhan according to Space Age Publishing.