China to Launch New Crewed Mission into Space This Week 

The combination of the Shenzhou-20 crewed spaceship and a Long March-2F carrier rocket is vertically transferred to the launching area in Jiuquan, China, 16 April 2025 (issued 17 April 2025). (EPA/Xinhua / Liu Fang)
The combination of the Shenzhou-20 crewed spaceship and a Long March-2F carrier rocket is vertically transferred to the launching area in Jiuquan, China, 16 April 2025 (issued 17 April 2025). (EPA/Xinhua / Liu Fang)
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China to Launch New Crewed Mission into Space This Week 

The combination of the Shenzhou-20 crewed spaceship and a Long March-2F carrier rocket is vertically transferred to the launching area in Jiuquan, China, 16 April 2025 (issued 17 April 2025). (EPA/Xinhua / Liu Fang)
The combination of the Shenzhou-20 crewed spaceship and a Long March-2F carrier rocket is vertically transferred to the launching area in Jiuquan, China, 16 April 2025 (issued 17 April 2025). (EPA/Xinhua / Liu Fang)

China is expected to launch a new crewed mission into space this week, as Beijing takes steady steps towards its goal of putting astronauts on the Moon.

The Shenzhou-20 mission will blast off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to the country's self-built Tiangong space station for a likely six-month stay.

The team will undertake experiments to further the space program's ambitious aims to place astronauts on the Moon by 2030 and eventually build a lunar base.

The country's space agency said last week that the Shenzhou spaceship and its Long March-2F carrier rocket were transferred to a launch site at the remote desert base and would launch "at an appropriate time in the near future".

Photographs published by the Xinhua state news agency showed the sleek white rocket perched on a blue pedestal festooned with national flags, pointing towards the heavens, with red-and-gold banners hailing China's space program.

"At present, the launch site facilities and equipment are in good condition. The functional inspections and joint tests will be carried out as planned," the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said.

Authorities have not yet given details on the identities of the Shenzhou-20 astronauts or the work they will carry out.

Zhou Wenxing, a staff member at the country's astronaut training center, said the crew was "in good condition, precise in operation, and smooth in coordination", state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday.

- 'Space dream' -

China's previous crewed mission, Shenzhou-19, launched last October and will reach its planned end date on April 29.

It is headed by Cai Xuzhe, a 48-year-old former air force pilot who served a previous stint aboard the Tiangong space station as part of the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022.

Also among the crew is Wang Haoze, 35, who is China's only female spaceflight engineer and the third Chinese woman to take part in a crewed mission.

Song Lingdong, a 34-year-old man, completes the trio.

The Shenzhou-19 team has been carrying out tests to see how extreme radiation, gravity, temperature and other conditions affect "bricks" made from components imitating lunar soil, according to reports at the time of the launch.

Under President Xi Jinping, China has forged ahead with plans to achieve its "space dream".

Its space program was the third to put humans in orbit and has also landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon.

The jewel in the crown is Tiangong, the space station staffed by teams of three astronauts that are rotated every six months.

Beijing says it is on track to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030.

In recent decades, the country has poured billions of dollars into developing an advanced space program on par with the United States and Europe.

In 2019, it landed its Chang'e-4 probe on the far side of the Moon -- the first spacecraft ever to do so. In 2021, it landed a small robot on Mars.

Tiangong, whose core module, Tianhe, launched in 2021, is planned to be used for about 10 years.



Eggs Are Less Likely to Crack When Dropped on Their Side, According to Science

Fresh eggs are delivered along with chickens and a portable chicken coop to a client’s house as part of the "Rent The Chicken" service in La Crescenta, California, on April 21, 2025. (AFP)
Fresh eggs are delivered along with chickens and a portable chicken coop to a client’s house as part of the "Rent The Chicken" service in La Crescenta, California, on April 21, 2025. (AFP)
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Eggs Are Less Likely to Crack When Dropped on Their Side, According to Science

Fresh eggs are delivered along with chickens and a portable chicken coop to a client’s house as part of the "Rent The Chicken" service in La Crescenta, California, on April 21, 2025. (AFP)
Fresh eggs are delivered along with chickens and a portable chicken coop to a client’s house as part of the "Rent The Chicken" service in La Crescenta, California, on April 21, 2025. (AFP)

Eggs are less likely to crack when they fall on their side, according to experiments with over 200 eggs.

What does this mean for the best way to crack an egg for breakfast? Not much, since a break around the middle is the best way to get the golden yolk and runny whites to ooze out.

But scientists said it could help with hard-boiling eggs in a pot: Dropping eggs in horizontally may be less likely to cause a stray crack that can unleash the egg's insides in a puffy, cloudy mess.

It's commonly thought that eggs are strongest at their ends — after all, it's how they're packaged in the carton. The thinking is that the arc-shaped bottom of an egg redirects the force and softens the blow of impact.

But when scientists squeezed eggs in both directions during a compression test, they cracked under the same amount of force.

"The fun started when we thought we would get one result and then we saw another," said Hudson Borja da Rocha with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who helped run the experiments.

The researchers also ran simulations and dropped eggs horizontally and vertically from three short heights up to 0.4 inches (10 millimeters).

The egg result? The ones dropped horizontally cracked less.

"The common sense is that the egg in the vertical direction is stronger than if you lay the egg down. But they proved that's not the case," said materials scientist Marc Meyers with the University of California, San Diego who was not involved with the new study.

Scientists found that the egg's equator was more flexible and absorbed more of the energy of the fall before cracking. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Physics.

Eggs are also usually nestled top-down into homemade contraptions for egg drop challenges as part of school STEM projects, which partially inspired the new study. It's not yet clear whether the new results will help protect these vulnerable eggs, which are dropped at much loftier heights.

It's a bit counterintuitive that the oblong side of an egg could hold up better against a tumble, said study co-author Tal Cohen with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Countless broken eggs show "the courage to go and challenge these very common, accepted notions," Cohen said.