China launched its crewed Shenzhou-23 spacecraft and eased it into a successful docking with a space station early today as part of Beijing’s ambitions to send humans to the Moon by 2030, state media said.

During this mission, a Chinese astronaut is scheduled to spend a full year in orbit on the Tiangong space station, a crucial first in the Chinese lunar programme.

The Long March 2-F rocket blasted off in a cloud of flames and smoke on time on Sunday night local time from the Jiuquan launch centre in China’s northwestern Gobi Desert, state broadcaster CCTV showed.

The spacecraft separated from the rocket around 10 minutes later and entered orbit, the Chinese Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said on social media.

The craft docked successfully with the Tiangong space station after a flight of about 3.5 hours, the state news agency Xinhua reported, quoting CMSA.

The mission marks the first spaceflight by an astronaut from Hong Kong: Li Jiaying, 43, who previously worked for the Hong Kong police.

The two other crew members are space engineer Zhu Yangzhu, 39, and Zhang Zhiyuan, 39, a former Air Force pilot, who is travelling into space for the first time.

Cheering crowds waved Chinese flags at a farewell ceremony ahead of the launch, while a band played and the three astronauts saluted on stage.

The crew is set to carry out numerous scientific projects in life sciences, materials science, fluid physics and medicine.

A key experiment of Shenzhou-23 will be the full-year stay in orbit by one of the crew in order to study the effects of a long stay in microgravity.

The experiment is part of China’s preparations for future lunar missions, as well as missions to Mars.

Astronauts for China's Shenzhou-23 space mission (from left) Li Jiaying, Zhu Yangzhu and Zhang Zhiyuan during a press conference. Photo / AFP

The astronaut selected for this one-year mission will be named at a later date, depending on the progress of the Shenzhou-23 mission, a spokesperson for the CMSA said on Saturday.

The main challenges will involve long-term effects on humans, including bone density loss, muscle wasting, radiation exposure, sleep disturbances, behavioural and psychological fatigue, Richard de Grijs, an astrophysicist and professor at Macquarie University in Australia, said.

He also underlined the importance of reliable water and air-recycling systems, as well as the ability to manage potential medical emergencies far from Earth.

China is “steadily” building operational experience for “sustained occupation” of its Tiangong space station, and year-long missions are an important step towards future lunar and potentially deep-space ambitions, de Grijs said.

He added: “A year in orbit pushes both hardware and humans into a different operational regime compared with the shorter Shenzhou missions of the programme’s earlier phases”.

Crews aboard Tiangong have until now largely remained in orbit for six months before being replaced.

The Shenzhou-23 mission is part of China’s goal to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, a race in which the United States is also competing with its Artemis programme.

- AFP