Broadcast live on state television, the space craft undocked for two minutes, traveling 400 metres away from the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1 module. <\/p>\n
Its three-person crew, including the country's first woman in Space Liu Yang, then re-connected the two space craft under the manual control of the astronauts. <\/p>\n
The Shenzhou 9 has already conducted an automated docking with Tiangong 1, on June 18, a day after it blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. <\/p>\n
Compared with automated docking, manual docking is more challenging in terms of orbit control, said Xie Jianfeng, a space scientist with the Beijing Aerospace Control Center. <\/p>\n
The docking mission is the latest show of China's growing prowess in space and comes while budget restraints and shifting priorities have held back U.S. manned space launches. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
See original here:<\/p>\n
China's space station dream one step closer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Broadcast live on state television, the space craft undocked for two minutes, traveling 400 metres away from the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1 module. Continue reading