China Manned Space Program
| 中国载人航天工程 Zhōngguó Zàirén Hángtiān Gōngchéng | |
China Manned Space Program (CMS) logo which forms both the shape of a space station and the character "中" as in "中国" (China). | |
| Program overview | |
|---|---|
| Country | China |
| Organization | China Manned Space Agency |
| Purpose | Human spaceflight |
| Status | Active |
| Program history | |
| Duration | 21 September 1992 – present |
| First flight | Shenzhou 1 19 November 1999 |
| First crewed flight | Shenzhou 5 15 October 2003 |
| Last flight | Shenzhou 22 25 November 2025 (most recent) |
| Successes | 36 |
| Partial failures | 2 (Shenzhou 2 and 20) |
| Launch site(s) | Jiuquan · Wenchang |
| Vehicle information | |
| Uncrewed vehicle | Tianzhou |
| Crewed vehicle | Shenzhou |
| Crew capacity | 3 |
| Launch vehicle(s) | Long March 2F Long March 7 Long March 5B |
The China Manned Space Program (CMS; Chinese: 中国载人航天工程; pinyin: Zhōngguó Zàirén Hángtiān Gōngchéng), also known as Project 921 (Chinese: 九二一工程; pinyin: Jiǔèryī Gōngchéng) is a space program developed by the People's Republic of China and run by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) under the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission, designed to develop and enhance human spaceflight capabilities for China. It was approved on 21 September 1992 and has been in operation ever since. The CMS commander and director are currently Xu Xueqiang and Zhou Jianping respectively; the latter has held this position since 2006, after taking over from Wang Yongzhi, who served as the first director from 1992 to 2006.
As one of the most complex programs within the Chinese space agency, CMS was split into "three steps":
- Crewed spacecraft launch and return
- Rendezvous and docking with a space laboratory (with extravehicular activity capabilities)
- Long-term modular space station
On 29 November 2022, with the launch and docking of Shenzhou 15 with the Tiangong space station, the CMSA successfully completed all three of the above steps, thereby making China the third nation to achieve human spaceflight (after the Soviet Union/Russia and the United States), as well as the second nation to operate a single-nation modular space station (after the Soviet Union/Russia's Mir).