The trio exploded from the Jiuquan Launch Center in northwestern China’s Gobi Desert just after midnight (1600 GMT Friday), the China Manned Space Agency said, with the team expected to spend six months aboard the Tiangong space station.
The space agency declared the launch a success and said the crew were “in good shape”.
The Shenzhou-13 vessel carrying all three completed its docking with the space station’s radial port less than seven hours after launch.
The mission, which is expected to last twice as long as the previous 90-day voyage, will involve the crew setting up equipment and testing technology for future construction at Tiangong Station.
Mission commander Zhai Zhigang, 55, a former fighter pilot who performed the country’s first spacewalk in 2008, said the team would conduct “more complex” spacewalks than previous missions.
The crew includes 41-year-old military pilot Wang Yaping, the first woman to visit the space station since she became China’s second woman in space in 2013.
The other member of the team is 41-year-old People’s Liberation Army pilot Ye Guangfu.
Images released by the space agency showed three astronauts shaking hands to well-wishers who raised slogans of encouragement at a farewell ceremony ahead of the launch.
The crew that broke a previous record – becoming the first mission to Tiangong – returned to Earth in September after spending three months aboard the space station.
China’s highly publicized space program has already seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the Moon.
Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace”, is expected to operate for at least 10 years.
Its main module entered orbit earlier this year, with the station expected to be operational by 2022.
The entire station will be similar to the Soviet Mir station which orbited the Earth from 1980 to 2001.
The latest mission is set to “expand China’s technological range” and verify the space station system’s ability to last for longer periods of human occupation, Chen Lan, an independent space analyst at Gotaikonauts, told AFP.
“I don’t think it’s too challenging, because China’s technologies are quite mature, although anything in space is always challenging,” Chen said.
– space race –
Saturday’s explosion came shortly after China launched its first solar exploration satellite into space, equipped with a telescope to observe changes in the Sun.
The Chinese space agency is planning a total of 11 missions to Tiangong by the end of next year, including at least two more crew launches that will deliver two lab modules to expand the 70-ton station.
China’s space ambitions have been partially fueled by a US ban on its astronauts aboard the International Space Station in collaboration with the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan.
The ISS is due for retirement after 2024, although NASA has said it could potentially remain functional beyond 2028.
Chinese space officials have said they are open to foreign cooperation on the space station, although the scope of that cooperation is unclear.
The country has come a long way since launching its first satellite in 1970.
It placed the first Chinese “Taikonaut” in space in 2003 and landed the Chang’e-4 robot on the far side of the moon in 2019 – a historic first.
In May, China became the second country to land and operate a rover on Mars.
Astronauts on the Tiangong space station will have separate living space, exercise equipment and a communications center for email and video calls with ground control.
State broadcaster CCTV said the astronauts had also packed special food and supplies to celebrate the Lunar New Year during their long mission, including dumplings.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed.
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