China launches three new crew members to space station

[Video by Liu Chongyi/chinadaily.com.cn]

The three Shenzhou XX crew members — mission commander Senior Colonel Chen Dong, Colonel Chen Zhongrui and Colonel Wang Jie, all from the People's Liberation Army Astronaut Division — got off the ground at 5:17 pm as their spaceship's carrier, a 20-story-tall Long March 2F rocket, soared into skies from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert.

The astronauts in the Shenzhou XX mission, China's 15th manned spaceflight, are expected to arrive at the Tiangong space station early on Friday morning, joining their peers in the Shenzhou XIX who have been in orbit for nearly six months.

The spacecraft is programmed to fly about 10 minutes before crossing the Karman line, at an altitude of 100 kilometers above sea level, which is the start of outer space and the threshold for orbital flight. After that, the Shenzhou XX spacecraft will soon separate from the rocket and activate the rapid autonomous rendezvous-docking mode.