In China it was just past midnight when, after thirty orbits, the spacecraft Shenzhou 8 launched two days ago docked successfully with the Tiangong 1 module, which was put into orbit in September, at a height of about 343 km. Thus the first attempt by China to dock an unmanned spacecraft was completed.

The docking was the end of a series of maneuvers that were intended to reach the rendezvous between the spacecraft Shenzhou 8 and the space module Tiangong 1. Less than ten minutes after its lift off, the spacecraft Shenzhou 8 separated from the Long March 2F rocket, which served as a launch vehicle, and reached orbit gradually adjusting its height and trajectory to synchronize it with the module Tiangong 1.

At the end of the yesterday, Chinese time, the spacecraft Shenzhou 8 reached the distance of 52 km from the module Tiangong 1 and at that point the instruments that handle the rendezvous and docking operation were activated. It took more than two hours to perform all the maneuvers that led to the progressive approach of the spacecraft and in the end the docking was successful.

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Now the spacecraft Shenzhou 8 and the module Tiangong 1 will remain connected for another 12 days while a number of automated tests will be performed. Then the spacecraft will undock and a second docking test will be performed to reach after two more days the end of the mission with the return to Earth of the spacecraft Shenzhou 8.

The success of this docking represents a key point in the Chinese space program, whose purpose is to put a space station into orbit with a semi-permanent crew by 2020. The U.S.A. and USSR had already completed docking maneuvers in the ’60s but the Chinese are taking the steps necessary for the development of their space program in less time.

China has the will, especially at the political level, to invest large amounts of money in a serious space program and of course they can use all the technologies of the third millennium to do what the Americans and Soviets did using decades-old technologies. Within a few years the Chinese could become the leaders in space missions.