On the morning of June 17, three Chinese crew members blasted into the sky, bound for China’s under construction space station Tiangong. Powered by the gargantuan Long March-2F rocket, their Shenzhou-12 capsule successfully docked at the space station’s core module, Tianhe, after just a few hours.

The Shenzhou-12 launch is the first crewed Chinese space mission since 2016, and represents the latest development in China’s manned space program, an initiative which began in 1992 and put the first Chinese citizen into orbit in 2003. The footage of the three astronauts (or taikonauts, the English name for Chinese space voyagers) in blue suits, lining up in the space station and saluting back to Earth, may become an iconic moment in the collective memory of the nation. As the Chinese space crew begins life in their temporary home, here is everything you need to know about the Shenzhou-12 mission:

Mission Objective

Shenzhou-12 is the first spaceflight to send a human crew to the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong, China’s new space station which is due to be completed in 2022. The space station will be the astronauts’ home for three months, the longest continuous period of time any Chinese has ever spent in space. The previous record of 33 days was set by the crew of Shenzhou-11 in 2016.

During their stay, the astronauts are scheduled to complete two spacewalks. The crew will use robotic arms to move around the ship and carry out repair tasks, as well as various experiments and tests on the Tiangong‘s equipment. But high on the crew’s to-do-list is to open the packages of supplies delivered by the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft less than three weeks ago. The 6.8 tons of supplies include two specialized spacesuits for spacewalks, oxygen tanks, food, water, propellant, and other supplies. At the end of the mission, the crew will ride the Shenzhou-12’s descent vehicle back to Earth, and land at the Dongfeng landing site in the Badain Jaran Desert in the western part of Inner Mongolian.