China launches their first crew on the new space station

On Thursday, Under bright blue morning skies, China launched its first crewed space mission in five years, sending three science-minded military pilots rocketing to a new orbiting station they’re expected to reach around midafternoon.

The astronauts, already wearing their spacesuits, were seen off by space officials, other uniformed military personnel and a crowd of children waving flowers and flags and singing patriotic songs. The three gave final waves to a crowd of people waving flags, then entered the elevator to take them to the spaceship at the Jiuquan launch centre in northwestern China.

The astronauts are traveling in the Shenzhou-12 spaceship launched by a Long March-2F Y12 rocket that blasted off shortly after the target time of 9:22am with near-perfect visibility at the launch centre on the edge of the Gobi Desert.