A Chinese spacecraft docked manually with an orbiting module

Written by WebDesk | June 25, 2012 | 0

AP Photo/Beijing Aerospace Control Center via Xinhua

BEIJING, China: A Chinese spacecraft carrying three astronauts docked manually with an orbiting module, a first for the country as it strives to match American and Russian exploits in space.

The Shenzhou 9 capsule’s maneuver with the Tiangong 1 module was shown live on national television. It follows a docking last week that was carried out by remote control from a ground base in China. The Chinese astronauts have been living and working in the module for the past week as part of preparations for manning a permanent space station. They returned to the Shenzhou 9 capsule early Sunday and disconnected in preparation for the manual re-connection.

Wu Ping, spokeswoman for China’s manned space program, told TheGaibianPost that ”Hand levers were used to control Shenzhou 9 and position it to dock with the orbiting module. The maneuver was “precise and perfect” and the three astronauts carried it out “calmly and skillfully. This success in manual docking represents a major breakthrough in our space rendezvous and docking technologies.”

This was the first spacecraft in which China sent first women astronaut to space. The reason was to compete with the world’s super powers including Russia & America.