Shenzhou XV crew set out for Tiangong space station

The crew members of the Shenzhou XV mission, China's 10th manned spaceflight, set out on their journey to the country's Tiangong space station on Tuesday night.

A 20-story-tall Long March 2F carrier rocket blasted off on schedule at 11:08 pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert and soon placed the Shenzhou XV spacecraft in a low-Earth orbit about 400 kilometers above the ground.

As this was the first time a rocket carrying astronauts was launched in freezing temperatures of nearly minus 20 degrees Celsius, engineers equipped the rocket and its service tower with a host of cold-proof materials.