Blast off! China sends two astronauts to live onboard its space station in nation's longest manned mission yet

After months of preparation, China has launched two astronauts into space this morning on a mission to its orbiting laboratory.  
The Shenzhou-11 spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi desert.
Astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong will take two days to reach the Tiangong-2 space lab, or 'Heavenly Palace-2', which was launched in September.
CHINA'S SPACE STATION  China could start building its space station starting as early as next year, Xinhua quoted Zhou Jianping, chief engineer of the manned spaceflight programme, as saying.
'Once the lab mission... read more