China's Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship successfully docked with the Tiangong space station early Monday morning, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT) on Sunday.
About 10 minutes after the launch, the spaceship separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit.
The Shenzhou-23 spaceship later successfully docked with the radial port of the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong space station at 02:45, with the docking process taking about 3.5 hours.
The Shenzhou-23 crew consists of commander Zhu Yangzhu and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, who is the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
They will shortly enter the Tianhe core module of the space station to assume duties from the three astronauts of the Shenzhou-21 mission who are already aboard the space station.
Notably, one of the Shenzhou-23 crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.
Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.
Shenzhou-23 spaceship docks with space station combination
