A look at Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship launch in 80 seconds

A see-off ceremony for three Chinese astronauts of the Shenzhou-17 crewed space mission was held on Thursday morning at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, according to the China Manned Space Agency. 　

At the command of Xu Xueqiang, commander-in-chief of China's manned space program, astronauts Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie, and Jiang Xinlin set off at 8:26 a.m. (Beijing Time). 　

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. 　

About 10 minutes after the launch, the Shenzhou-17 spaceship separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit.

The crew members, consisting of Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin, are in good shape and the launch is a complete success, the CMSA said. 　

The spaceship made a fast, automated rendezvous and docking with the front port of the space station's core module Tianhe at 5:46 p.m. Thursday (Beijing Time). 　

The whole process took approximately 6.5 hours, said the CMSA.