China launched an emergency space mission on Tuesday to join astronauts stranded at the country's space station .

The unmanned Shenzhou-22 spacecraft was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at around 12.11 p.m. local time, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) and Reuters.

It later arrived without incident at the Tiangong space station just over three-and-a-half hours later, according to the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

It comes after three Chinese astronauts were left stranded at the space station earlier this month after their spacecraft was used to return another crew to Earth because their capsule had been damaged by suspected space debris.

Newsweek contacted the CMSA for comment by email outside of regular working hours.

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