China prepares to send new 3-person crew to space station

BEIJING (AP) — Final preparations are being made to send a new three-person crew to China’s space station as it nears completion amid intensifying competition with the United States. The China Manned Space Agency says the Shenzhou-15 mission will be launched late Tuesday night. Officials say the six-month mission will be the last “in the construction phase of China’s space station.” The station’s third and final module docked with the station earlier this month, one of the last steps in a more than decade-long effort to maintain a constant crewed presence in orbit. In 2003, China became the third country after the U.S. and Russia to put a human into space using its own resources.