spacetoday.net: Shenzhou-10 docks with Tiangong-1

Shenzhou-10 docks with Tiangong-1

Posted: Fri, Jun 14, 2013, 8:22 AM ET (1222 GMT)
Shenzhou-10 docking illustration (Xinhua)

China's Shenzhou-10 spacecraft, with three astronauts on board, successfully docked with that country's Tiangong-1 module on Thursday. Shenzhou-10 made the docking with Tiangong-1 in automated mode at 1:18 am EDT (0518 GMT) Thursday, and the three people onboard Shenzhou-10 entered the module later in the day. the crew is expected to stay at Tiangong-1 for nearly two weeks, performing experiments and also conducting lectures for students in China. The crew will also undock and manually redock with Tiangong-1 during their mission. The Shenzhou-10 crew is the second crew to visit the lab module, launched in September 2011; Tiangong-1 will be decommissioned after Shenzhou-10 returns to Earth.