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BBC News reports that the Shenzhou 11 spacecraft with two taikonauts has successfully docked with China's second space station (their first station, Tiangong-1, was also recently in the news, because it is dropping from orbit).
The Shenzhou-11 spacecraft blasted off from northern China on Monday, and docked with Tiangong 2 at 03:24 Beijing time (19:24 GMT Tuesday).
Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong will be spending the next 30 days in space conducting experiments.
It marks the longest space mission by Chinese astronauts.
The docking took place 393km (244 miles) above Earth and the remotely controlled procedure lasted about two hours, according to state media.
The docking took place in the early hours of Wednesday morning Beijing time.
State television on Wednesday morning carried live video of the docking and arrival of the astronauts, or "taikonauts", which saw them floating through a narrow 1m-long, 80cm-wide passageway into the lab.
The pair "extended greetings to all the people of the nation," while onboard the laboratory, according to the Xinhua news agency.
More links:
http://www.ecns.cn/2016/10-19/230722.shtml
I'm curious why they have only 2 crew this time instead of 3. Maybe they needed the extra space for the food experiments?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2016, @08:16PM
Please explain how time zones work.
Because the Sun is a more localized phenomenon, works more like a spotlight ("hotspots" have been spotted from high-altitude balloons, not consistent with a distant Sun) and is not as high as NASA and modern astronomy tells you. The Sun circles around the plane much like the hour hand circles on the surface of a clock, illuminating locally. Perspective, atmospheric attenuation and perhaps a limited range for the propagation of sunlight prevents you from seeing it all the time (same as attenuation from water keeps deep waters in perpetual darkness)