China launched the manned spaceship Shenzhou-15 on Tuesday night, with three astronauts onboard due to meet with their colleagues on the country's space station and conduct a work handover.

The spaceship, atop the Long March-2F Y15 carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The Shenzhou-15 astronauts will, for the first time in China's space history, conduct an in-orbit rotation with the Shenzhou-14 crew, who were sent to the space station in June, said the CMSA.