China has launched a rocket carrying three astronauts to the newly completed space station, where it plans to spend the next six months on projects aimed at achieving Beijing’s goal of establishing a permanent Chinese presence in space. The Shenzhou-15 spacecraft took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at around 23:08 local time on a Long March-2F rocket, state media reported.

Tuesday’s launch marked a turning point for the Chinese space agency, which is the first to send a crewed mission into space in extremely cold conditions. Unlike NASA, which usually launches American space missions from facilities in hot locations in Florida or Southern California, China’s space agency operates one of its main launch facilities in China’s Gobi Desert. -20C (minus-4F).

China, which has been banned from accessing the International Space Station by the US, is the only country with its own orbital station, and the Chinese space agency has several other ambitious plans, including sending Chinese astronauts to the moon. The US is trying to get there first and perhaps back as early as 2025. On November 16, NASA launched the most powerful rocket in 50 years, sending the uncrewed Orion capsule on a lunar mission as part of a program to get American astronauts back to the moon within the next decade. According to the official press, China is also working to achieve this.

“Our astronauts will probably be able to go to the moon in 10 years,” Wu Weiran, the lead developer of China’s lunar exploration program, said in an interview with state television CCTV this month. After arriving at China’s space station, the Shenzhou-15 astronauts will briefly share with three astronauts from the previous mission, Shenzhou-14, who have been there since June.

It will be the first time that Chinese astronauts from two different missions will be together on the space station, an achievement “of not only symbolic significance, but also of great practical value for the overall development of the country’s first permanent space outpost.” To the Global Times, a newspaper controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. The Shenzhou-14 astronauts are scheduled to return to Earth about a week after their Shenzhou-15 counterparts arrive.