BEIJING - A Chinese spacecraft on Sunday successfully completed the country's first manual docking in orbit, the official Xinhua news agency said, a milestone in an ambitious programme to build a space station.
The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft manually linked with the Tiangong-1 module just over a week into a manned space mission which includes China's first female astronaut, following an automatic docking on Monday.
"The first manual docking has been completed normally," mission control announced in a live broadcast on state television.
The manual "space kiss" was the main goal of the Shenzhou-9 mission, testing the docking technique essential to building a space station -- which China aims to do by 2020.
The two spacecraft first came together in an automatic docking on June 18, and several hours later the three astronauts on board Shenzhou-9 entered the experimental Tiangong-1 module -- a first for China.
Earlier on Sunday, the two vessels separated in preparation for the manual docking, which state media originally said would take place around noon (0400GMT), although it was not completed until roughly 45 minutes later.
Manual docking is hard to master as it involves two vessels -- placed in the same orbit and revolving around Earth at thousands of kilometres per hour -- coming together very gently to avoid destroying each other.
The Tiangong-1 will only stay in orbit until 2013 and will later be replaced.
- AFP/ir
Popular Posts
-
The Battambang province of Cambodia lies in the far north-west of the country, with a capital city going by the...
-
Thursday, 10 September 2009 15:00 Roth Meas and Dene Mullen ...
-
Three of Spain's heroes from previous semi-finals share their memories with UEFA.com as La Roja prepare for Wednesday's last-f...
-
The Preah Vihear temple is located slightly east of the midsection of the mountain range of Dangrek. It is also...
-
We've all seen countless cases of bad plastic surgery, but the good cosmetic procedures are much harder to spot. Celebrities are also ...
-
Prime Minister Hun Sen has fiercely defended his right to grant economic land concessions after issuing a moratorium on the leases in May...
-
Malaysian police have searched the homes of the pilots of the Malaysia Airlines plane that vanished eight days ago with 239 people on boa...
-
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 15:04 May Titthara Photo by: Deum Ampil...
-
Share 6 Pop singer Eva has been accused of having a relationship with a married man. Various unflattering comments were posted on the teen ...
-
Friday, 27 April 2012 For three hours yesterday at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, Ieng Sary...
0 comments To "China completes first manual space docking"
Post a Comment