President Xi congratulates successful launch of the core capsule of China's space station.

Sixty years after Yuri Gagarin undertook mankind's first space journey, China launched the core capsule of its space station on Thursday morning, formally embarking on the buildup of one of the humanity's largest and most sophisticated space-based facilities.

As the countdown ticked down to zero at 11:23 am at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, 10 engines at the bottom of a Long March 5B heavy-lift carrier rocket roared to life, generating a thrust power of 1,068 metric tons to lift the 18-story-tall vehicle through thick rain clouds covering the coastal city of Wenchang.

The launch is tasked with transporting the 22.5 ton capsule, the biggest and heaviest spacecraft China has ever constructed, to a low-Earth orbit about 400 kilometers above the land to place the first piece of the country's space station.

The craft's weight equals that of 15 ordinary-sized cars combined.