BEIJING China will send three astronauts to its now fully operational space station on Tuesday as part of a crew rotation, in the fifth manned mission to the Chinese space outpost since 2021, the China Manned Space Agency announced on Monday.

The spacecraft Shenzhou-16 will lift off atop a Long March 2F rocket at 9:31 a.m (0131 GMT).

(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Christopher Cushing)