JIUQUAN, May 24 (Xinhua) -- China launched the Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship on Sunday.

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

The Shenzhou-23 crew consists of mission commander Zhu Yangzhu, along with astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Li Jiaying, or Lai Ka-ying in Cantonese. The three astronauts are, respectively, a flight engineer, a spacecraft pilot, and a payload specialist.