A rocket carrying China’s first space laboratory, Tiangong-1, has launched from the north of the country.
The Long March vehicle lifted clear from the Jiuquan spaceport in the Gobi Desert at 21:16 local time (13:16 GMT).
The rocket’s ascent took the lab out over the Pacific, and on a path to an orbit some 350km above the Earth.
The 10.5m-long, cylindrical module will be unmanned for the time being, but the country’s astronauts, or yuhangyuans, are expected to visit it next year.
Categories: China, Science and Technology