China has successfully sent a manned mission to space for the construction of its self-developed space station. The spaceship, called Shenzhou-12, carrying three astronauts lifted off from a satellite launch center in northwest China. The astronauts will stay and work on the space station's core module, dubbed Tianhe, for three months. It is the first of 11 missions needed to complete China's first full-fledged space station. China started its construction in April with the launch of Tianhe, which is the first and largest of three required modules. Since 2003, China has launched six crewed missions and sent 11 astronauts into space. China is also the second country to put a rover on Mars after the US.