The three Chinese astronauts on board the Shenzhou-12 spaceship entered the country's space station core module Tianhe on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office.

The trio is expected to stay in space for three months as part of the country's space station mission.

China on Thursday successfully launched the crewed spacecraft Shenzhou-12.

The spacecraft, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, was launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gobi Desert at 9:22 a.m. BJT.