UPDATE - China sends 3 crew members to space station

UPDATES WITH ARRIVAL AT SPACE STATION, CHANGES DECK

By Emre Aytekin

BEIJING (AA) - China on Sunday launched the Shenzhou 14 spacecraft on a Long March 2F rocket, carrying three crew members for a six-month stay on the country's new space station.

The rocket blasted off at 10.44 a.m. local time (0244GMT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia and entered its planned orbit after about 577 seconds, according to a statement by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The three Chinese astronauts, also known as taikonauts, Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe, are in good condition, it added.

The Shenzhou 14 later arrived at China's Tiangong "Palace in the Sky" space station on the same day, according to an announcement by the CMSA.

Following a flight of about seven hours, the spacecraft docked with the station's core module at 5.42 p.m., about 400 kilometers (248 miles) above the ground, reported the South China Morning Post daily.

Chen Dong, 44, the commander of the team, previously participated in China's space lab Tiangong-2 in the Shenzhou-11 space mission in 2016. Yang, 44, the first Chinese woman in space, participated in the Shenzhou-9 mission in 2012. Xuzhe, 46, is on his first space mission.