China on Saturday sent three astronauts to its space station for a record-setting six-month stay as the country moves toward completing the new orbiting outpost

The Shenzhou-13 spacecraft carrying the three astronauts was launched by a Long March-2F rocket at 12:25 a.m. Saturday.

The two men and one woman are the second crew to move into the spacestation, which was launched last April. The first crew stayed three months.

Asteroids are remnants of the early Solar System, with the potential to reveal secrets of our planet's origins. But they could also bring an end to life on Earth. Now two missions, Lucy and DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) will provide further insights into both of these features—with DART even attempting to redirect the orbit of a moon around an asteroid.

Space rocks are generally considered to be asteroids if they are larger than approximately 1km in size, and made principally of "non-volatile" materials—chemicals that can be easily vaporized. Carbon monoxide, for example, is volatile as it vaporizes at a temperature of -191°C. But iron, with a vaporization point of 2,862°C is non-volatile.

This is somewhat different to comets. Asteroids are found more commonly in the inner Solar System, whereas comets with their volatile-rich composition tend to lurk in the outer part, far from the heat of the Sun.

The International Space Station was briefly destabilised Friday during tests of a Russian-made Soyuz rocket, but the crew and the orbital station were not in danger, Moscow said.

Russia's Roscosmos space agency said the incident happened during tests of the engines of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft set to return a Russian actress and filmmaker aboard the ISS to Earth on Sunday.

"As a result, the International Space Station temporarily changed its position," Roscosmos said in a statement.

"The station and the crew are not in danger."

Russian actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko travelled to the ISS earlier this month to make the first movie in orbit ahead of the United States.

Peresild and Shipenko are set to go back to Earth with cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, who has been on the space station for the past six months.

The Russian segment of the ISS has experienced a number of problems in recent months.

In July, the space station tilted out of orbit after the thrusters of the Nauka module reignited several hours after docking.

As competition in the space tourism industry heats up, a US-based firm said Friday it was excited to re-enter the sector with the upcoming launch of a Japanese billionaire.

Space Adventures, headed by Tom Shelley, is set in December to send Japanese tycoon Yusaku Maezawa to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Russia-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

It's the company's first launch in over a decade after suspending trips to the ISS as NASA bought up seats on Russia-operated flights and no other vehicles were available.

"It's a very exciting time for us," Shelley, 48, the president of Space Adventures, told AFP during an interview in Moscow on Friday.

He added that Space Adventures with Russia was planning future launches "to innovate and find new offerings" for clients.