Shenzhou crew set for first spacewalk

The Shenzhou XX mission crew members aboard China's Tiangong space station are scheduled to carry out their first spacewalk in the coming days, the China Manned Space Agency said on Wednesday. The three orbital travelers — mission commander Senior Colonel Chen Dong, and crew members Colonel Chen Zhongrui and Colonel Wang Jie — have been aboard the station since their arrival on April 25. They have conducted a host of assignments, including examining and performing maintenance on instruments, installing intravehicular devices, monitoring the space station environment and testing spacewalk suits. The astronauts have also rehearsed medical emergency response efforts and engaged in scientific and technological tasks, the agency said in a news release.

Commercial rocket deploys 6 satellites

CAS Space, a Beijing-based rocket maker owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, launched a Kinetica 1 carrier rocket on Wednesday afternoon, successfully placing six satellites in orbit. The Kinetica 1-Y7 rocket lifted off at 12:05 pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert and then deployed three remote-sensing satellites — a radar satellite, a mini weather satellite and an experimental satellite — into space, the company said in a news release. These satellites will be used to gather data and images for urban construction planning, environmental monitoring, weather forecast and other civilian purposes. The "Y7" in the designation code means it was the seventh in the rocket series. The launch marked the 31st space mission in China this year.

Former tobacco exec sentenced to 16 years

Ling Chengxing, former head of China's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for accepting bribes and abusing power. The sentence was handed down on Wednesday by the intermediate people's court of Changchun in Jilin province. Ling was found to have taken advantage of his various posts between 2006 and 2023 to seek benefits for others in matters such as project contracting and business operations, while accepting bribes worth 43.11 million yuan ($6 million) in return. Moreover, Ling had engaged in favoritism, corruption and abuse of power in the process of facilitating and reviewing matters related to investment and equity acquisition, resulting in a loss of State-owned assets amounting to over 208 million yuan, per the court verdict. Ling was also handed a 4-million yuan fine, while all his illegal gains must be recovered and turned over to the State treasury.

China Daily - Xinhua