China was set to launch the Shenzhou-21 spaceship to its orbiting space station on Friday, sending its newest rotation of three astronauts — along with four mice. The latest astronaut crew taking off from the Jiuquan launch center in northwestern China includes pilot and mission commander Zhang Lu, who also was on the Shenzhou-15 mission to the space station two years ago. While in space, the astronauts planned to conduct 27 scientific and applied projects in biotechnology, aerospace medicine, materials science and other areas. For the first time, China is sending mice to its space station. The two males and two females will be monitored to study how weightlessness and confinement affect their behavioral patterns, said Han Pei, an engineer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Is Chinese space mission a really threat to US security ?
