The photo shows three Chinese astronauts, Zhai Zhigang (C), Wang Yaping (R) and Ye Guangfu, waving after entering the space station core module Tianhe. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

Edited by TANG Zhexiao

The Shenzhou-13 crewed spacecraft was successfully launched by a Long March-2F carrier rocket at 00:23 Beijing time on October 16 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

After a successful launch to the new Chinese Space Station in June, the spacecraft and its three astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, headed for Tianhe, the core module of the Tiangong space station that China is building in low Earth orbit.

Shenzhou-13 is the eighth crewed flight of China's space program. Zhai is the country's first astronaut to take a spacewalk, Wang is China's second female astronaut to participate in a spaceflight, and Ye will be making his first journey to space.

After entering orbit, the spacecraft will conduct a wide range of tasks, including performing two or three spacewalks to install a small robotic arm onto a larger one and verifying key procedures and technologies, according to Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency. Scientific experiments and technology demonstrations in space medicine, microgravity physics and other fields will also be conducted.

Shenzhou-13 docked with the space station Tiangong on the morning of October 16 and three astronauts entered the country's space station core module Tianhe. The astronauts will stay in the orbit for six months, the longest ever duration for the Chinese astronauts.