China launched the Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship on Wednesday, sending three astronauts -- including the country's first female space engineer -- to its orbiting space station for a six-month mission.
The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off at 4:27 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, said the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
About 10 minutes after the launch, the Shenzhou-19 spaceship separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit. The crew members, consisting of mission commander Cai Xuzhe and crew members Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, are in good shape and the launch is a complete success, the CMSA announced.
The spaceship will then perform a fast, automated rendezvous and docking with the front port of the space station core module Tianhe in about 6.5 hours, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.
Shenzhou-19 is the 33rd flight mission of China's manned space program, and the fourth manned mission during the application and development stage of China's space station.
China launches Shenzhou-19 manned spaceship
China launches Shenzhou-19 manned spaceship
China launches Shenzhou-19 manned spaceship
China launches Shenzhou-19 manned spaceship
China's logistics sector grossed a revenue of 10 trillion yuan (around 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters, representing a 3.7 percent year-on-year increase, according to data released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing on Tuesday.
In September, the volume of orders received by logistics companies increased, with companies becoming more active with positive changes in key performance indicators, from the micro perspective.
In terms of structure, the supply in major transport logistics sectors remained stable. In the third quarter, the national railway transported a total of 1.004 billion tons of goods, up 3.8 percent year on year and setting new historic high in terms of quantity of goods delivered in a single quarter. The national railway also delivered 9.58 million TEUs of containers, up 17.3 percent year on year.
The air cargo logistics nodes quickened their recovery, with the cargo and mail transportation volume growing nearly 20 percent year on year in the third quarter, and the delivery scale continuously reaching monthly new highs in August and September.
The business revenues of major logistics enterprises under focal investigation grew by 4 percent year on year in the first three quarters, at a grow rate of 1.1 percentage points higher than that in the first eight months of the year.
"The supply and demand relationship in the entire logistics sector was further optimized. And with such sci-tech empowerment, enterprises further improved their management capabilities and their capacity to provide integrated and diversified services to the supply chain. Under these factors' comprehensive impact, costs of every hundred yuan revenue of these logistics companies were lowered," said Liu Yuhang, director of the China Logistics Information Center.
China's logistics revenue up 3.7 pct in 9 months
