China speeds up space race with first crew sent to new space station

Three men, Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, will spend three months aboard the Tianhe module some 380km (236 miles) above the Earth. The trio took off in the Shenzhou-12 capsule, atop its Long March 2F rocket on Thursday. It marks China’s longest crewed space mission to date and the first in nearly five years.