Although it shows a WR spectrum, it is thought to be a young star still fusing hydrogen in its core.
WR 156 has a Hipparcos parallax of 3.16" indicating a distance of about a thousand light years, although with a fairly large margin of error.
[4] In the Gaia Early Release 3, the solution was adjusted to 0.2749±0.0125 mas, still with significant astrometric noise excess.
Its outer layers are calculated to contain 30% hydrogen, one of the highest levels for any galactic Wolf Rayet star.
[6] WR 156 is a young hydrogen-rich star, still burning hydrogen in its core but sufficiently luminous to have convected up nitrogen and helium fusion products to its surface.