China carries out its first space docking
Posted: Thu, Nov 3, 2011, 6:26 AM ET (1026 GMT)
China docked two spacecraft in orbit for the first time ever on Wednesday when its Shenzhou-8 spacecraft met up with the Tiangong-1 module. Shenzhou-8 docked with Tiangong-1 at 1:36 pm EDT Wednesday (1736 GMT Wednesday, 1:36 am Beijing time Thursday), a little under two days after launch from China. Shenzhou-8, an uncrewed version of China's crewed spacecraft, will remain docked to Tiangong-1 for 12 days before undocking and redocking; Shenzhou-8 will then undock again and return to Earth. A successful mission would allow China to proceed with plans for a crewed mission to Tiangong-1 next year.
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