On Thursday three Chinese astronauts were launched into orbit to take occupation of the country’s new Tiangong space station.
Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo were successfully launched into space and will spend three months on the space station, China’s longest ever manned mission and the first in five years.
The first module of the Tiangong space station, known as the Tianhe module, was launched in April this year. The space station is expected to be completed by November next year.
This is the latest in China’s growing achievement in space exploration – it recently returned rock and soil samples from the Moon and also landed a rover on Mars. This could also be a reflection of its growing rivalry with the United States on Earth.