Shenzhou-10 spacecraft was blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on a Long March rocket, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Shenzhou-10 is China's fifth manned space mission.
Wang Yaping, 35, the second Chinese woman to go into space after Liu Yang last year, was onboard while the mission is being commanded by Nie Haisheng. Zhang Xiaoguang is the other crew member.
Earlier, Chinese President Xi Jinping attended a see-off ceremony for the three astronauts.
"On behalf of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the State Council, the Central Military Commission, as well as people of all ethnic backgrounds across the country, I'm here to see you off," said Xi, who is also the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party.
Wang, who hails from a farmer's family from east China missed the chance last year to become the first Chinese woman to go to space. An air force pilot, she lost it narrowly to fellow pilot Liu, who was onboard the Shenzhou IX, June last.
This is the second such mission to build China's first Spacelab which was expected to be fully ready by 2020 by which time Mir, which currently orbiting was expected to complete its mission.
This would make the Chinese Spacelab the only such station in the space. Till then China was expected to fly manned space missions each year to build a permanent space station improving on the current experimental module Tiangong-1.
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