China launches new crew for space station

China has sent a three-person crew, including a civilian for the first time, to join its orbiting space station, as it pursues plans to send a crewed mission to the moon within 10 years.

The Shenzhou-16 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC) on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket just after 9:30am (01:30 GMT) on Tuesday.

The crew, including China’s first civilian astronaut Beihang University professor, Gui Haichao,…