China successfully launches Shenzhou-20 crewed spaceship

China

China successfully launches Shenzhou-20 crewed spaceship

2025-04-24 20:04 Last Updated At：22:57

China on Thursday successfully launched the Shenzhou-20 spaceship, sending another three astronauts on their way to the orbiting Tiangong space station where they will begin a six-month mission.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off at 17:17 (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The launch was later declared a complete success by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The Shenzhou-20 crew consists of experienced mission commander Chen Dong, and astronauts Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie, who are both making debut their spaceflights. A send-off ceremony was held earlier on Thursday for the three astronauts before they left for the launch site.

About 10 minutes after the launch, the Shenzhou-20 spaceship separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit, said the CMSA.

The next key stage will come around 6.5 hours after the launch, when the spaceship will perform a fast, automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station core module Tianhe, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.

Shenzhou-20 is the 35th flight mission of China's manned space program, and the fifth crewed mission during the application and development stage of China's space station.

The crew is scheduled to return to the Dongfeng landing site in north China in late October this year.

U.S. gov't begins refunding tariffs to businesses

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Monday launched the first phase of a new claims system that will allow importers to seek repayment of tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

Companies and their customs brokers can submit refund requests through CBP's Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) portal using a newly developed tool known as the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or CAPE, starting Monday.

Once a claim is validated, CBP will recalculate the duties without the IEEPA tariffs and reliquidate the entries, triggering repayment. The refunds will be paid directly to the businesses that originally paid the tariffs, local media reported Monday.

Valid refunds will generally be issued within 60 to 90 days after a claim is accepted, CBP said, though more complex cases could take longer.

CBP is rolling out the refund process in phases. Court filings show that more than 330,000 importers paid duties on over 53 million shipments, totaling roughly 166 billion U.S. dollars.

The Supreme Court ruled in February that U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs under IEEPA are unconstitutional. It is Congress, not the president, that holds authority over such taxes.

Following the ruling, a judge at the U.S. Court of International Trade directed CBP to remove the tariffs from affected entries and refund any excess duties collected, along with interest.