spacetoday.net: Shenzhou docks manually with Tiangong

Posted: Sun, Jun 24, 2012, 10:03 AM ET (1403 GMT)
Shenzhou-9 redocking with Tiangong-1 (Xinhua)

In a new demonstration of Chinese space capabilities, a crewed Shenzhou spacecraft safely undocked with an orbiting lab module Sunday and then redocked under manual control. The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft redocked with the Tiangong-1 module at 12:48 am EDT (0448 GMT, 12:48 pm Beijing time) under manual control, about an hour and a half after undocking from the module. Shenzhou-9 initially docked with the module on Monday in automated mode, but this maneuver, where the spacecraft pulled away to a distance of 400 meters before returning, was doing manually. Official Chinese media said the manual docking demonstrated that China had "completely grasped" rendezvous and docking technologies and was on track to develop a full-fledged space station by 2010. Shenzhou-9, carrying a three-person crew, will undock from the station for good later this week and return to Earth.