The Chinese Shenzhou 9 spacecraft took off on June 16, 2012 and docked with the Tiangong 1 module with an automatic maneuver on June 18. Today, the three members of the crew which include the first Chinese woman have also successfully performed a maneuver to dock manually.

During the last week, two of the three Chinese astronauts stayed in the Tiangong 1 module, used as an experimental space lab. According to official Chinese sources, they quickly adapted to the space environment with the absence of gravity.

Today, the astronauts returned to the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft and under the guidance of the astronaut Liu Wang  undocked from the module, moved about 400 meters from it and started a new approach maneuver.

This part of the maneuver was done again using the automated systems of the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft. When it came to about 120 meters from the Tiangong 1 module, the three astronauts received from the control center in China permission to proceed with the manual docking.

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The procedure, obviously complex, was performed successfully. It’s another important step for the Chinese space program. Now the astronauts are expected to remain four more days in the Tiangong 1 module then proceed with a manual undocking that will end the mission. At that point, the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft will return to Earth.

In the coming years, China will start operations of its space station construction. In missions that will carry into orbit and assemble the various modules, automated docking maneuvers will be performed. However, should there be any problem in the radar systems, laser and optical sensors used for this purpose, the Chinese astronauts have shown that they’ll be able to proceed with a manual docking operation.

The Chinese space station should be finished by 2020 but there are already rumors of a possible space mission leading Chinese astronauts to the Moon. Only the Americans were on the Moon and noone’s been going there for over thirty years so it would be another major step forward for China. The Chinese haven’t exactly the most democratic government in the world, do we really want to let them control outer space?