China launched the Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceship on Friday, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station on a six-month mission.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

The Shenzhou-21 crew consists of mission commander Zhang Lu, and astronauts Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang. These three astronauts serve as space pilot, flight engineer and payload specialist, respectively, representing all three categories of Chinese astronauts currently being applied in the country's space endeavors.