China’s Shenzhou-16 spacecraft successfully docked at Tiangong Space Station

247 – China’s manned space agency Shenzhou-16 with three astronauts on board successfully docked in the main cabin of Tiangong Space Station on Tuesday. Sputnik. The team includes the first civilian astronaut.

Docking took place at 16:29. The agency said Beijing time (08:29 GMT) and the flight took 6.5 hours. The agency added that the second rotation of the orbital crew should take place, followed by the departure of the Shenzhou-15 crew to Earth, while the Shenzhou-16 crew will work at the space station for about five months.

Earlier in the day, China launched the Shenzhou-16 manned spacecraft from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in north-central China’s Gansu Province.

China’s first manned space mission in 2003 made it the third country, after the former Soviet Union and the United States, to put a person in space under its own power.