When in Beijing it was afternoon, at 6 GMT, the Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou 9, which took off last Saturday, docked with the Tiangong 1 module.

Actually, the docking was performed using an automated procedure controlled by a system of radar, laser and optical sensors that have led to the alignment between the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft and the Tiangong 1 module and then completed the docking.

Two of the three astronauts aboard the spacecraft Shenzhou 9 will soon enter the Tiangong 1 module to begin a series of tests of the life support systems and scientific experiments. We know that some experiments will address the effects of the lack of gravity on humans but it’s possible that other ones are programmed but weren’t made public. China isn’t exactly the most open country in the world and generally announces to the world only what is useful for propaganda purposes.

In a few days, the astronauts of the Shenzhou mission 9 should try a manual docking to the Tiangong 1 module . To carry out this maneuver, the spacecraft will separate from the module, it will move to a certain distance and from there the crew will start the approach maneuvers for the manual docking.

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Liu Wang should be the astronaut to fly the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft in the attempt to dock manually. At the press conference before his departure, Liu Wang stated that he and his colleagues have done over 1,500 simulations of the manual docking procedure to master it perfectly.

In China they’re already preparing the mission Shenzhou 10 to be carried out the next year but there are still no details. Obviously, first of all they must see if the Shenzhou 9 mission will be completed with full success. Later, the data from the various tests and experiments will be examined and then they will set the details for the next mission.

In any case, China keeps on demonstrating it’s seriously pursuing its own space program with significant investments starting with the financial ones. The other nations have better take notice quickly.