Dragon takes to wing with Chinese orbital mission

A CHINESE spacecraft carrying three astronauts docked with an orbiting module yesterday, another first for the country as it strives to match American and Russian exploits in space.

The Shenzhou 9 capsule completed the manoeuvre with the Tiangong 1 module 213 miles above Earth. The docking was shown live on television.

Astronauts will live and work in the module for several days as part of preparations for manning a permanent space station. The crew includes 33-year-old Liu Yang, an air force pilot and China’s first female space traveller.

Liu is joined by mission commander and veteran astronaut Jing Haipeng, 45, and crew mate Liu Wang, 43

Yesterday’s docking was completed by remote control from a ground base in China.

A manual docking, to be carried out by one of the crew members, is scheduled for later in the mission.