A see-off ceremony for three Chinese astronauts, or taikonauts of the Shenzhou-13 manned space mission was held on Friday evening at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

A Long March-2F carrier rocket with the spaceship atop will be launched at 12:23 a.m. Saturday Beijing Time (1623 GMT Friday), sending the taikonauts to the Tianhe core module of China's space station currently orbiting the Earth.

The trio – Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu – will stay in space for six months to help assemble China's space station, the longest ever in-orbit duration for taikonauts.

After entering orbit, the spaceship will conduct a fast automated rendezvous and docking with Tianhe, forming a complex with the core module and the cargo crafts Tianzhou-2 and Tianzhou-3.

The taikonauts will live and work in the core module according to the same timetable as on Earth. During the six-month stay, they will conduct two to three spacewalks to install a robotic arm adapter and suspension system used for future space station assembling works. 

They will also further verify the life support system in the Tianhe core module to assess whether it's sustainable for long stays, and conduct scientific experiments and demonstrations in areas such as space medicine and microgravity. 

The Shenzhou-13 mission is one of a series of launches to complete the building of the new station by the end of 2022. China has successfully launched the Tianhe core module, two Tianzhou cargo ships and a manned spacecraft to construct the space station. More missions will take place if Shenzhou-13 succeeds. 

With the International Space Station set to retire in the coming years, China's space station will become the only one in Earth's orbit. The China National Space Administration has expressed its desire for international cooperation and non-Chinese astronauts are being trained for future space station missions.