Chinese enter their own space station for the first time!

According to China's manned space engineering office, after the shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft successfully achieved autonomous rapid rendezvous and docking with Tianhe core module, the astronaut crew entered the orbital module from the return module.

After completing the preparations according to the procedures, the doors of the node module and the core module were opened successively. At 18:48 Beijing time on June 17, 2021, astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo successively entered the Tianhe core module, marking the first time for the Chinese to enter their own space station. In the future, the crew will carry out relevant work as planned.

At 15:54 on June 17, the shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft successfully completed the orbit entry state setting, and successfully docked with the forward port of Tianhe core module by using the autonomous rapid rendezvous and docking mode. Together with the previously docked tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft, it formed a three cabin (ship) assembly. The whole rendezvous and docking process lasted about 6.5 hours. This is the first rendezvous and docking with a manned spacecraft after Tianhe core module was launched into orbit.

Video: rendezvous and docking between Shenzhou 1222 and Tianhe core module

At 9:22 Beijing time on June 17, the long march 2F remote 12 carrier rocket carrying the Shenzhou 12 manned spacecraft ignited and launched at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.