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

The five-year-old daughter of Wang Yaping, the first female taikonaut to work aboard China's Tiangong space station, also joined at the scene to cheer her mother.

The trio – Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu – will stay in space for six months, a Chinese record for time in orbit.

The Shenzhou-13 mission, launched on Saturday, is the second of four manned missions to construct China's space station.