China's third manned spaced mission ascends 343 kilometres above the earth, entering its final orbit.
Astronauts on board the Shenzhou VII craft, meaning 'sacred vessel', are preparing for their most challenging mission, to carry out their first spacewalk.
The space programme is being run secretively through the Chinese military and government. The budget for the trip is unclear, but when China carried out a mission in 2003, the cost was said to reach around 18 billion yuan, $2.6 billion dollars.
Basmah Fahim reports.
