China launched its latest moon mission, the Shenzhou-17 with three astronauts on board to its Tiangong space station on Thursday. The Shenzhou-17 lifted off from the Jiuquan launch site in arid northwest China at 11:14 am (0314 GMT) carrying a team of three astronauts with the youngest average since the space station's construction, as per an AFP report.
The space travellers bid a farewell to the observers in a send-off ceremony on Thursday morning ahead of the rocket launch.
"The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China," China's state news agency Xinhua reported.
The three-team astronaut is being headed by Tang Hongbo, who is on his first return mission to the space station. Accompanying him are Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin, both in their thirties and each making maiden space voyages.
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The all-male crew with an average of 38 years is the youngest ever to man a mission to the space station.
The crew is set to "perform various in-orbit space science and application payload tests and experiments", Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, said on Wednesday.
Members of the previous Shenzhou-16 crew — aboard Tiangong for nearly five months now — are now preparing to receive the next batch after returning to Earth next week.
As the mission launched off, the crew onboard the space station was shown monitoring the ascent, in a livestream, in anticipation of their arrival.
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A space programme official proclaimed the launch a "complete success" after the rocket had been airborne for about 15 minutes, the AFP report added.
The Tiangong Space Station, crown jewel of Beijing's space programme, is constantly crewed by rotating teams of three astronauts.
The Shenzhou-16 crew will return to Earth on October 31 after completing a handover, officials said Wednesday.