China successfully launches Shenzhou-14 into space with three crew members on board

MADRID, 5 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

China successfully launched into space on Sunday the Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft, with three astronauts on board, and whose mission is to supervise the final stages of construction of the Tiangong space station.

This is China's ninth manned space flight, and the first in which an astronaut from that country is sent into space, according to the 'China Daily' newspaper.

Shenzhou-14 will carry astronauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe into space to convert the Chinese space station into a space laboratory, CMSA deputy director Lin Xiqiang explained in statements collected by the Xinhua agency.

Once in orbit, the spacecraft will need to rendezvous with the Tiangong space station to dock with the station's core module radial port, as well as the Tianzhou-3 and Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft, Xiqiang said.

The crew of the Shenzhou-14 mission will spend six months on their space station, and will mark a starting point by which there will always be Chinese citizens in outer space without interruption. China's personnel in space will be renewed every half a year, Huang Weifen, chief designer of China's manned space program astronaut system, told a press conference, quoted by Xinhua.