China's spacecraft crew steps into space station

The Shenzhou XIII mission crew entered the Tiangong space station on Saturday morning, embarking on their six-month journey inside the station in the country's longest spaceflight.

The three-member crew — mission commander Major General Zhai Zhigang, Senior Colonel Wang Yaping and Senior Colonel Ye Guangfu — floated into the station's core module, named Tianhe, or Harmony of Heavens, at 9:58 am, around three hours after their spacecraft docked with the module, which is the first and central section of the permanent space station — Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace.

Their Shenzhou XIII spacecraft was lifted by a Long March 2F carrier rocket that blasted off at 12:23 am at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert.

During their flight, the astronauts are tasked with a wide range of assignments, such as performing two to three spacewalks to install a small robotic arm onto a larger one; verifying key procedures and technologies like manual control of the robotic arms and robotic arm-assisted movement of station modules; checking the performance and capability of devices inside the station; and testing support instruments for astronauts' life and work in long-term flights, according to Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency.

The astronauts will conduct scientific experiments and technology demonstrations in space medicine, microgravity physics and other fields. They will also deliver educational lectures that will be televised for Chinese students, the official said.

Shenzhou XIII is the fourth spacecraft to visit the Tiangong station and the second crewed ship to transport astronauts to the orbiting outpost.