Shenzhou-18 spacecraft carrying 3 astronauts will remain in orbit for 6 months, Ednews reports via Anadolu Agency.

According to the information that, the Chinese state media said that a six-month space mission with three astronauts began on Thursday.

The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on a Long March 2F rocket at 20:59. After entering orbit, the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft will perform a rapid automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the main module of the Tianhe space station, which will take about 6.5 hours. Astronauts Ye Guangfu, Li Kong, and Li Guangsu will remain in orbit for six months and are scheduled to return to the Dongfeng landing site in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at the end of October this year.

During the mission, the main tasks of the astronauts will be space experiments and tests in cutting-edge fields such as aerospace medicine, basic physics, materials science and life science. Shenzhou-18 is the 32nd flight mission of China's manned space program and the third manned mission in the implementation and development phase of China's space station.