China today launched spacecraft in longest-ever manned mission, taking two astronauts into orbit. They will spend a month aboard an experimental space laboratory that is part of a broader plan to have a permanent manned space station in service around 2022. The Shenzhou 11 blasted off on a Long March rocket at 7:30 AM local time today from the remote launch site in Jiuquan, in the Gobi desert, in images carried live on state television.