China launched the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft at night from the outskirts of the Gobi Desert and has successfully docked at the Tiangong space station.
The mission took three astronauts to the Tiangong space station, Commander Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan, and Lai Ka-ying, who was Hong Kong's first astronaut.
Within just three and a half hours of launch, the aircraft managed to lean over at Tiangong to perform a handover of duties with the previous crew that had been in orbit for more than 200 days.
While on the space station, the crew will perform a variety of missions such as spacewalks, maintenance, and microgravity and human health experiments.
This time the mission set new history because for the first time China's space program will put a single crew member to live for an entire year in space. The duration, which is twice as long as previous missions, is a crucial test for Beijing's long-term ambition to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030.
The success of Shenzhou-23 confirms that China's space program is fully operational and a strong contender in the global space race.
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