A Chinese manned spacecraft blasted off with three astronauts on board on Tuesday, June 11, on a 15-day mission to an experimental space lab in the latest step towards the development of a space station, Reuters

The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft was launched from a remote site in the Gobi desert in China's far west at 5:38 pm (0938 GMT) under warm, clear blue skies, in images carried live on state television.

Once in orbit, the craft will dock with the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1, a trial space laboratory module, and the two male and one female astronauts will carry out various experiments and test the module's systems.

They will also give a lecture to students back on Earth.

China successfully carried out its first manned docking exercise with Tiangong 1 last June, a milestone in an effort to acquire the technological and logistical skills to run a full space station that can house people for long periods.

President Xi Jinping oversaw Tuesday's launch personally, addressing the astronauts before they blasted off to wish them success, saying he was "enormously happy" to be there.

China also plans an unmanned moon landing and deployment of a moon rover. Scientists have raised the possibility of sending a man to the moon, but not before 2020.