Beijing: China will launch a manned space mission today to send two astronauts to dock on its second experimental lab orbiting the earth for a month-long stay, as the communist giant moves closer to realise it goal of setting up its own permanent space station by 2022.

Chinese astronauts Jing Haipeng (50) and 37-year-old Chen Dong will be blasted into space aboard Shenzhou-11 spacecraft at 7.30 am (5 am IST) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center near the Gobi Desert in northern China.