BEIJING, June 5. /TASS/. China launched on Sunday crewed spacecraft Shenzhou-14 to its orbital outpost, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) reported in a statement.
The spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China using the Long March-2F carrier rocket at 10:44 a.m. local time.
The CMSA reported that 577 seconds after the lift off the spaceship separated from the carrier rocket and entered the designated orbit. The crew of three aboard the spacecraft is feeling well and the launch was a complete success, according to the CMSA.
China’s Xinua news agency reported earlier in the day that "the trio will cooperate with the ground team to complete the assembly and construction of the Tiangong space station, developing it from a single-module structure into a national space laboratory with three modules - the core module Tianhe and two lab modules Wentian and Mengtian."
The crew will spend six months in orbit before returning to Earth in December.
The Chinese space station is at the altitude of about 400 kilometers and is intended to stay operational in orbit for more than 10 years. It’s designed for three people.