[June 18, CMSE News]  The first manned space docking of China succeeded Monday afternoon with the coupling of the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft and Tiangong-1 lab module.
The procedure began with the Shenzhou 9, with three astronauts aboard, moving to a location 52 km away from the Tiangong-1 at noon Monday. The spacecraft then slowly drifted toward the Tiangong-1 before making contact with the module at 2:07 p.m.
The docking was completed in less than eight minutes.
China's first successful unmanned space docking was completed last year with the docking of the Shenzhou 8 spacecraft and the Tiangong-1.