Three astronauts launch to the Chinese space station Tiangong

Three astronauts made their way to the Chinese space station Tiangong.

The Shenzou 23 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Space Center in northwest China, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Astronauts Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan and Li Jiaying are on board.

Li Jiaying is the first person from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to take part in a Chinese space mission, according to the Chinese space agency CMSA.

The crew is supposed to replace the current crew of Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang on the space station.

The spacecraft was scheduled to dock with the station a few hours after launch.

This mission will be the first time that a Chinese astronaut will stay on the station in space for around a year.

Which member of the crew this will be will only be decided later.

China probably wants to use the longer stay to investigate how long-term missions affect the human body.