Shenzhou IX, carrying female astronaut Liu Yang and male astronauts Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province into a blue sky.

The crew will stay in space for more than 10 days, during which time they will perform scientific experiments and the country's first manual space docking - a highly technical procedure that brings two vessels together in high-speed orbit.

Successful completion of the space rendezvous and docking - which will see Shenzhou IX attach itself to the Tiangong-1 module currently orbiting Earth - will take China one step nearer to setting up its own space station in 2020.

At the Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Saturday, hundreds of scientists monitored and reported the spacecraft's status every few seconds. Big screens showed the three astronauts smiling and waving at the monitoring camera when the carrier rocket blasted off.

At 6:47 pm, Shenzhou IX entered its orbit. Chang Wanquan, chief commander of the country's manned space program, announced that the lift-off had been a complete success.

滬江快訊：2012年6月16日晚18時37分，托舉神州九號載人飛船的長征二號F遙九火箭，從酒泉衛(wèi)星發(fā)射中心騰空而起，神舟九號飛船成功發(fā)射！中國航天員景海鵬、劉旺、劉洋將第一次入住“天宮”。中國人民解放軍航天員大隊男航天員景海鵬、劉旺和女航天員劉洋組成飛行乘組，執(zhí)行這次載人交會對接任務(wù)。劉洋參加載人航天飛行任務(wù)，填補(bǔ)了我國女性航天飛行的空白。