A Chinese spacecraft carrying three astronauts has docked with an orbiting module where they will live and work for several days as part of preparations for crewing a permanent space station.
The Shenzhou 9 capsule completed the manoeuvre as scheduled earlier this morning as the Tiangong 1 module orbited 343km above Earth.
The capsule’s crew includes 33-year-old Liu Yang, an air force pilot and China’s first female space traveller.
Today’s docking was completed by remote control from a ground base in China. A manual docking carried out by one of the crew members is scheduled for later.
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Two crew members plan to carry out medical tests and experiments inside the module, while the third will remain in the spacecraft.