China launched three astronauts as its first crew to its new Tiangong space station on Thursday. This is the country's first manned spaceflight in nearly five years.
The three astronauts are scheduled for a three-month stay aboard the core module of the new space station, which was launched to low Earth orbit on April 28.
This will be the longest space stay for any Chinese astronauts, and one focus will be seeing how the men handle their relatively long time in orbit.
Shenzhou-12, meaning “Divine Vessel”, is the third of 11 missions needed to build China’s space station.