China launches new crew for orbiting space station

China’s first manned space mission in 2003 made it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the US to put a person into space under its own resources.

A Long March rocket carrying a crew of Chinese astronauts in a Shenzhou-16 spaceship lifts off (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

China launched a new three-person crew for its orbiting space station on Tuesday, with an eye to putting astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade.

The Shenzhou 16 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan launch centre on the edge of the Gobi Desert in north-western China atop a Long March 2-F rocket.