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China’s first six-month human spaceflight mission launched Friday at 12:23 p.m. EDT (1623 GMT). Three Chinese astronauts rode into orbit from the Jiuquan launch base in the Gobi Desert on the Shenzhou 13 spacecraft, heading for a link-up with China’s space station about six-and-a-half hours after liftoff.

On the eve of the next crew launch to the Chinese space station, a spokesperson for China’s human spaceflight agency repeated Thursday the country’s invitation for international astronauts to fly to the new orbiting space lab.

China’s first six-month human spaceflight mission, set to become a regular occurrence for the rest of the decade, is poised for launch Friday to kick off a trip to the country’s Tiangong space station. Chinese officials unveiled the astronauts for the Shenzhou 13 mission Thursday, publicly naming commander Zhai Zhigang to lead the crew. He will be joined by veteran astronaut Wang Yaping, who became the second Chinese woman to fly in space in 2013, and first-time space flier Ye Guangfu.

NASA and United Launch Alliance officials met Wednesday and cleared an Atlas 5 rocket for launch from Cape Canaveral before dawn Saturday with the Lucy asteroid mission, a robotic spacecraft to visit unexplored asteroids in the outer solar system.

William Shatner, the 90-year-old veteran of countless imaginary space voyages playing Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, blasted off for real Wednesday, becoming the oldest person to reach the final frontier in a PR bonanza for Jeff Bezos and his rocket company Blue Origin.