BEIJING/ JIUQUAN (PTI): Three Chinese astronauts, including a woman, made a smooth entry into the orbiting space station after the successful launch of their spaceship on Wednesday to man the station for the next six months.

The three astronauts of China's Shenzhou-19 spaceflight mission have entered the Tiangong space station and met with another astronaut trio starting a new round of in-orbit crew handover, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced.

Earlier, the spaceship Shenzhou-19 carrying the three astronauts successfully docked with the space station combination.

The spaceship made a fast, automated rendezvous and docking with the front port of the space station's core module Tianhe at 11 am (Beijing Time) after which the three astronauts entered it, the CMSA said.

They were welcomed by the three-member crew which manned the station for the past six months.

In the early hours of Wednesday, the Shenzhou-19 spaceship was successfully launched by a Long March-2F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China.

About 10 minutes after the launch, the Shenzhou-19 spaceship separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit.

China built its space station after it was reportedly excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) over concerns that China's space programme is manned by its military, the People's Liberation Army (PLA). It is currently the only country to have a space station.

The ISS is a collaborative project of several countries. Observers say China's space station may become the only one of its kind in orbit once the ISS retires in the coming years.