China launched the ship "Shenzhou-12" to its station

The Changzheng-2F launch vehicle with the spacecraft launched today at 9:22 local time (4:22 Moscow time) from the Jiuquan cosmodrome in Gansu province in the north-west of the country.

"Approximately 573 seconds after the launch, the manned spacecraft "Shenzhou-12" separated from the rocket and entered the specified orbit. Three cosmonauts were successfully sent into space, the condition of the crew is good, the launch was recognized as successful”, - the Chinese Manned Flight Program said.

The crew member of the "Shenzhou-6" and "Shenzhou-10" missions Nie Haisheng, the crew member of the "Shenzhou-7" mission Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, for whom this flight was the first in his career, went to the orbital station.

"Shenzhou-12" will approach in autonomous mode and quickly dock with the main module "Tianhe", forming a common structure with the main compartment of the station and the cargo ship "Tianzhou-2", sent earlier. The astronauts will return to Earth on board a special capsule.

The current mission is already the 19th in a row since the creation and implementation of the PRC manned flight program, which includes, among other things, the launches of unmanned spacecraft.

Recall that in 2003 China became the third country in the world to send a man into space. Shenzhou 12 was China's first manned mission since 2016.

Earlier it was reported that Russia and China are planning to create a space station to explore the moon. This is one of the projects for the study of deep space, which the countries plan to implement together, said Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Russian Federation Zhang Hanhui.