Chinese astronauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe will carry out the Shenzhou-14 spaceflight mission, and Chen will be the commander, announced the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) at a press conference Saturday.

Chen, born in 1978, once participated in the Shenzhou-11 crewed spaceflight mission, and Liu, of the same age with Chen, became China's first female astronaut in the Shenzhou-9 mission. Cai, born in 1976, is a newcomer to space.

The Shenzhou-14 crewed spaceship is set to be launched on Sunday with a Long March-2F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

The three astronauts will stay in orbit for six months, and complete the construction of the Tiangong space station, with a basic three-module structure consisting of the core module Tianhe and the lab modules Wentian and Mengtian.

According to Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA, the Shenzhou-14 crew will witness the two lab modules, Tianzhou-5 cargo craft and Shenzhou-15 crewed spaceship dock with the core module Tianhe during their stay in orbit.

The Shenzhou-14 crew is expected to return to the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in December.