BEIJING (Reuters) -China sent three astronauts to its permanently inhabited space station on Thursday in its 15th crewed spaceflight and 20th overall in the Shenzhou program that started more than three decades ago.
The spacecraft Shenzhou-20 and the crew lifted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China at 5:17 p.m. (0917 GMT), according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The spaceship successfully docked with the space station, state news agency Xinhua reported later in the day, citing the China Manned Space Agency.
The launch comes as China’s advances in lunar and space exploration are drawing in more countries.
Pakistan is carrying out a preliminary selection of astronauts, one of whom will eventually be sent to space on a future Shenzhou spaceflight and become the first foreign astronaut to enter China’s Tiangong space station.
(Reporting by Aaditya Govind Rao in Bengaluru and the Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
