China’s first crewed spacecraft carrying 3 astronauts has successfully docked at the country’s first ever space station – Tiangong.
The spacecraft, Shenzhou-12, is a long March-2F rocket, launched at 9:22am Beijing time from the Gobi desert.
Shenzhou-12 arrived and docked with the Tianhe module (part of Tiangong space station) approximately 7 hours later after the launch.
The crew will spend 3 months abroad the space station, which orbits 380km above earth.
The moment of contact was met with applauses in China, marking a major breakthrough for the country’s space exploration.