Three Chinese astronauts, including the country's only woman spaceflight engineer, entered the Tiangong space station Wednesday morning following an early morning launch into orbit.
The Shenzhou-19 mission took off with its trio of space explorers from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, state news agency Xinhua and state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Among the crew is Wang Haoze, 34, the spaceflight engineer, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). She is the third Chinese woman to take part in a crewed mission.
The crew met with the astronauts from the previous Shenzhou-18 mission, "starting a new round of in-orbit crew handover," Xinhua said.
The new Tiangong team will carry out experiments with an eye toward the space program's goal of placing astronauts on the Moon by 2030 and eventually constructing a lunar base.
The space agency deemed the launch a "complete success," Xinhua said, noting that the spaceship separated from the rocket it was on and entered its designated orbit about 10 minutes after taking off.
Xinhua later said the spaceship had "made a fast, automated rendezvous and docking with the front port of the space station's core module Tianhe."
The team will return to Earth in late April or early May next year, CMSA Deputy Director Lin Xiqiang said at a press event ahead of the launch. The current crew is scheduled to return to Earth on November 4. They've been on the space station for six months.
