Crew profiles

Major General Fei Junlong, 57, a native of Jiangsu province, is a founding member of the People's Liberation Army's Astronaut Division headquartered in Beijing. He is the commander of the Shenzhou XV mission.

Fei joined the PLA Air Force in June 1982 and was selected in January 1998 as one of the nation's first astronauts.

In October 2005, Fei performed his first space mission onboard the Shenzhou VI spaceship with Nie Haisheng, fulfilling the country's first multiday crewed spaceflight. He was commander of the five-day mission.

Senior Colonel Deng Qingming, 56, a native of Jiangxi province, is one of the pioneering Chinese astronauts.

He was admitted to the PLA Air Force in June 1984 and was a commanding officer of a fighter jet regiment before joining the PLA Astronaut Division in January 1998.

Senior Colonel Zhang Lu, 46, a native of Hunan province, is the last of the second generation of Chinese astronauts to take part in a spaceflight.

Zhang joined the PLA Air Force in August 1996 and was an elite fighter jet pilot at a training base. He was selected as one of the seven second-generation astronauts in May 2010.