Three Chinese Astronauts Reach Orbit With Shenzhou-10 Launch (Video)

The Chinese manned spacecraft Shenzhou-10 launched early this morning at 5:38 a.m. ET from the the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on a 15 day mission, the longest Chinese manned mission yet.

The Shenzhou-10, China’s fifth manned spacecraft, took off from the Jiuquan launch center in the northwestern province of Gansu.

The three astronauts – two male, one female – will perform experiments and go through two docking tests with the orbiting Chinese space lab module Tiangong-1, one automatic and the other manual.

Wang Yapingis the second female astronaut in China's manned space mission and the first one born in the 1980s according to the Xinhua news agency.

The mission is designed to test docking and astronaut support technologies, as well as capabilities for the construction of a space platform, Chinese space officials said.

China’s first manned flight into space was in October 2003, aboard the Shenzhou-5.