JIUQUAN -- China on Thursday launched the Shenzhou-18 manned spaceship to send three taikonauts to its orbiting Tiangong space station for a six-month mission. The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

China will launch the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China at 8:59 pm on Thursday, sending the new crew - Ye Guangfu, Li Cong, and Li Guangsu - to the Chinese Space Station,

BEIJING -- Shenzhou-18 crewed spaceship successfully docked with the space station combination early on Friday morning, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- China's Shenzhou-18 manned spaceship successfully docked with the space station combination early on Friday morning, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The spaceship made a fast, automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station's core module Tianhe at 3:32 a.m. (Beijing Time).

The Shenzhou XVIII spacecraft will be launched at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 8:59 pm on Thursday. The crew members are Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu, with Ye as the mission commander. The main objectives for the mission include orbit handover with the Shenzhou XVII crew and carrying out a series of experiments and missions during a six-month stay.

A spaceship carrying three astronauts from China's Shenzhou-18 mission safely docked at Tiangong space station Friday, state-run media reported, the latest step in Beijing's space programme that aims to send astronauts to the Moon by 2030.

China launched a three-member crew to its orbiting space station on Thursday as part of its ambitious program that aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030. The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long