Shenzhou-12 astronauts enter space station core module

Three Chinese astronauts on board the Shenzhou-12 spaceship entered the country’s space station core module Tianhe on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

At 18:48 Beijing Time, Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo entered Tianhe hours after the spaceship successfully docked with the core module.

The trio will stay in space for three months and start their work as planned.

China on Thursday morning successfully launched spacecraft Shenzhou-12 with three astronauts to its space station core module Tianhe.

It is China‘s seventh manned mission to space and the first in the process of building China‘s space station. It is also the first in nearly five years after the country’s last manned mission.

The spacecraft, carried by a Long March-2F carrier rocket, was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China‘s Gobi Desert at 09:22 Beijing Time.

The spacecraft completed orbital status setting after entering the orbit and conducted a fast autonomous rendezvous and docking with the front docking port of Tianhe at 15:54 Beijing Time, forming a three-module complex with the cargo craft Tianzhou-2.