Shenzhou XX completes space station docking

The Shenzhou XX manned spaceship successfully docked with the space station combination late on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The spaceship made a fast, automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station's core module Tianhe at 11:49 pm.

The whole process took approximately 6.5 hours, the agency said.

The three Shenzhou XX crew members — mission commander Senior Colonel Chen Dong, Colonel Chen Zhongrui and Colonel Wang Jie — got off the ground at 5:17 pm as their spaceship's carrier, a 20-storey-tall Long March 2F rocket, soared into the sky from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert.