Chinese spacecraft docks with orbiting module

Beijing, June 24 (IANS) Chinese astronauts Sunday manually docked a spacecraft with an orbiting module, the first such attempt in China's space exploration history, authorities said.

The astronauts successfully docked the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft with Tiangong-1 orbiting module, Xinhua reported.

China is now capable of transferring humans and cargo to an orbiter in space.

Astronaut Liu Wang, assisted by his teammates Jing Haipeng and Liu Yang, completed the task at 12.42 p.m.

Shenzhou-9 was sent into space June 16 from a launch centre in China's Gobi desert.

Manual docking, a highly sophisticated space manoeuvre, requires astronauts to link together two orbiters in space without a hitch.