Three crew members of the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft moved into the main compartment of the Chinese Tiangong orbital station, becoming the first Chinese cosmonauts to enter the station. This was announced on Thursday, June 17, in the message of the Chinese manned flight program.
The Changzheng-2F launch vehicle with a manned spacecraft launched today at 9:22 am local time (4:22 am Moscow time) at the Jiuquan Cosmodrome in the Chinese province of Gansu in the northwest of the country. The first crew for the station included cosmonauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo.
After the launch, the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft successfully entered the assigned orbit and at 10:54 Moscow time performed rendezvous and quick docking with the main module of the Chinese Tianhe orbital station, forming a common structure with the main compartment of the station, as well as a cargo ship.
After docking at 13:48, the three lander cosmonauts entered the orbital compartment. The crew will spend three months on board the station, after which they will return to Earth using the return capsule.
