China, on Tuesday successfully launched its fifth and longest space mission, ‘Shenzhou-10’ with three astronauts including a woman on board.

As part of efforts to build a permanent space lab of its own by 2020, the Shenzhou-10 spaceship carrying three astronauts blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu.

The event which was telecast live was attended by President Xi Jinping.

Set on a 15 day long mission, the spaceship will dock with Tiangong-1 space lab orbiting the Earth and will also be conducting a series of experiments.

Zhang Youxia, Chief commander of China’s manned space programme, said, “China’s Shenzhou-10 spacecraft, with three astronauts on board, entered its designated orbit this afternoon.

After the launch, Xi, congratulated Chinese scientists on the successful launch of the Shenzhou-10 manned spacecraft.

He told astronauts, “You made Chinese people feel proud of ourselves. I wish you success and look forward to your triumphant return.”

Currently, US and Russia are the two nations to send independently maintained space stations into orbit.

This is China’s fifth manned mission and would last a fortnight compared to last year’s 13 days.

Wang Yaping, the second Chinese woman to go into space after Liu Yang last year, was on board while the mission is being commanded by Nie Haisheng.

Nie took part in China’s space mission in 2005. Zhang Xiaoguang is the third crew member.