When in Italy it will be 3:31 on Tuesday 30 May, the Chinese space mission Shenzhou-16 will leave for the Tiangong orbiting station, now fully operational, as part of a crew rotation with the previous Shenzhou-15 mission.

Among the three astronauts who will sit aboard the space shuttle powered by the Long March 3F rocket, China Manned Space Agency spokesman Lin Xiqiang said: "Payload expert Gui Haichao is a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics."

Gui will be "primarily responsible for the operation of experimental space science payloads in orbit," Lin continued, noting that China has so far deployed only the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army, its armed forces, as taikonauts.

Shenzhou-16 will be launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwest of the country.

After coming to power in late 2012, President Xi Jinping promoted China's ambitious "space dream" plans, with billion-dollar investments in his military-led program aimed at bringing humans to the moon by 2030 and, over time, to Mars.