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
China completes first manual space docking
Labels: News
This entry was Posted by Stars and posted on Sunday, June 24, 2012 at 12:56 PM and is filed under News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the Comments Rss feed.
Popular Posts
-
From iFeng : Billionaire Offers 5 Million RMB Seeking “Pure Wife” A “Multi-Millionaire Seeking Spouses in Ten Cities Show” debuted in G...
-
ព្រីម លីហ្សា បានត្អូញត្អែរពីភាពឈឺក្បាល ព្រោះតែប្រុសៗជាច្រើនដែលតែងតែសុំស្នេហ៍ និងរញ៉េរញ៉ៃជាមួយនាង នាពេលកន្លងមក ក្នុងពេលន...
-
Red Flava: Again we’ve got a few quick mini updates to do this Thursday. The first is Ai Shinozaki ’s 篠崎愛 adorable and sexy Young Animal A...
-
There were some people spotted this couple at the Multi Storey carpark of Block 34A Marsiling Drive yesterday, sharing an intimate moment ...
-
A couple of days ago, a sex photo scandal involving the recent Internet celebrity , Yan Fengjiao (闫凤娇), caused quite a stir online. The sc...
-
ថ្ងៃចុងក្រោយនៃព្រឹត្តិការណ៍ AFC President-Cup 2012 ភ្នំពេញក្រោន របស់កម្ពុជា បានឆ្លងផុតវគ្គជម្រុះភ្នំពេញ: ក្រុមជើងឯក League របស់ប្រទេសនេប៉ាល់ Nepal Police Club បានយកឈ្នះក្រុមជើងឯក League របស់ប៊ូតាន Yeedzin FC ៤ ទល់ ០ មុនព...
-
Now it becomes popular for international models to show off their boobs with the phone between them. The Chinese models have starte...
-
Ben Brown in Simferopol: "Likely to be a huge landslide for Crimea being part of Russia" Crimea is voting on whether t...
Powered by Blogger.
0 comments To "China completes first manual space docking"
Post a Comment