Posted: Tue, Jun 11, 2013, 8:22 AM ET (1222 GMT)
China launched its fifth human spaceflight mission on Tuesday, carrying three astronauts to an orbiting space laboratory. A Long March 2F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China on schedule at 5:38 am EDT (0938 GMT, 5:38 pm Beijing time) Tuesday and placed the Shenzhou-10 spacecraft into orbit about ten minutes later. The crew, formally announced just a day before the launch, is commanded by Nie Haisheng, making his second spaceflight, and also includes Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping. The spacecraft is slated to dock with the Tiangong-1 module, a prototype space laboratory launched in 2011 and visited by the crew of Shenzhou-9 last year.

Related Links:

•  Xinhua article
•  collectSPACE article
•  BBC article
•  CNN article
•  CBS News article