The agency said in a post: “The Shenzhou-21 spacecraft arrived at the Tiangong orbital station and docked with it on the morning of Saturday, November 1. The spacecraft’s astronauts entered the station and met the current crew, consisting of three astronauts from the Shenzhou-20 mission.”

For its part, the China Manned Space Flight Authority said: “The astronauts of the Shenzhou-20 mission opened the hatch at 4:58 a.m. (Beijing time) and received the astronauts of the Shenzhou-21 mission who arrived at the station… The six astronauts will live and work together for approximately five days in order to complete the assigned tasks and hand over work tasks.”

China launched the “Cenzhou-21” spacecraft yesterday, Friday, from the Jiao’an Space Center, at 18:44 Moscow time, on board a Chinese CZ-2 space rocket.

The Chinese Tiangong orbital station currently orbits at an altitude of approximately 400 km. China previously indicated that the station is supposed to operate for 10 years in space, and is designed to have 3 astronauts on board (or 6 astronauts for a short period in the stage of replacing the astronaut crews). This station will also be used for international space projects.

Source: Xinhua + Russian agencies