.jpg)
A Chinese spacecraft carrying three astronauts docked with an experimental module yesterday, the latest milestone in China's ambitious campaign to build a space station.
The Shenzhou-9 and its crew of three, which includes China's first female taikonaut Liu Yang, linked with the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1 module, which was broadcast live on TV.
The docking was a first for Chinese manned spaceflight. In November 2011, the unmanned Shenzhou-8 successfully docked twice with Tiangong-1 by remote control.
Yesterday's docking also 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 planned for later in the mission.
The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft carrying Liu and her crewmates docked with Tiangong-1 around 2pm. About three hours later, flight leader Jing Haipeng floated into the 15-cubic-meter space module, marking the country's first transfer of astronauts between two orbiting crafts. Jing, 45, soon adjusted his position to stand in the gravity-free cabin and waved to a monitor inside the space module.
He was followed by Liu Wang, 43, who helped Jing monitor the condition of the air and pressure inside the module.
Woman astronaut Liu Yang, 33, was the last to enter the space lab. She stumbled and floated in the cabin and took a longer time to adapt to the new environment.
After entering the cabin, the three astronauts began to adjust various machines inside. They wore a thinner blue jumpsuit to move easily inside the narrow space, about the size of a bus.
The 8.5-ton space lab module has traveled around Earth for 263 days since it was launched last September.
They will live in the module for about 10 days, conduct medical tests on the effects of weightlessness on the human body, and perform other scientific and engineering tasks on Tiangong-1.
Two astronauts will live and work inside the module to test its life-support systems while the other one will remain in the capsule to deal with any emergency.
Major step toward station
"The real test will be the manual docking attempt six days later," said Zhou Jianping, chief engineer of China's manned space program. "A manual docking, if successful, will demonstrate the country's grasp of essential space rendezvous and docking know-how."
A manual docking is considered as a major step toward China building a space station around 2020, in time for the likely retirement of the International Space Station.
"I was extremely envious of my three colleagues because they could float freely in the cabin, but I could only sit in a far smaller space on Shenzhou-5," said Yang Liwei, who became China's first taikonaut in 2003.
The Tiangong module is mainly composed of a "sitting room" and two "bedrooms," said Zhang Bonan, chief designer of the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft. A red Chinese knot can be seen hung on the wall of the main cabin as a symbol of good fortune.
The main cabin mainly has equipment for experiments and a video phone booth for astronauts to contact the ground at any time, Zhang said.
It has separate "bedrooms," about 7 square meters each, for male and female astronauts. They can attach their sleeping bags in any position inside the gravity-free module. They will sleep in turns to make sure at least one is on duty.
"The astronauts can draw the curtain to be out of the sight of monitors being installed around the module," Zhang said.
It also has a smaller cabin in which there is a "gymnasium" where fitness equipment such as bicycle ergometer, chest developer and neuromuscular electrical stimulator will help astronauts reduce the effects of weightlessness and maintain their cardiac and muscular functions.
"They have to do exercise every day to ensure the health that is equally important with their work," said Yu Jin, chief designer of the Tiangong-1 space module.
