OREANDA-NEWS. China has launched the latest carrier rocket Chang Zheng 5 (also known as Long March 5). For the first time in the country’s history, the launch vehicle put a prototype of a manned spacecraft of the new generation into near-Earth orbit. This was reported by China Central Television. Beijing called the launch a success.

“Specially developed for China’s manned space program, Long March-5B will be mainly used to launch the modules of the space station,” the message of the newspaper People’s Daily reads.

The launch was carried out at 18:00 local time (10:00 UTC) from the Wenchang launch site located on Hainan Island. After 8 minutes and 13 seconds, the load separated from the rocket and entered a predetermined orbit. It is not yet known how much time the prototype of the spacecraft will spend in orbit.