China’s First “Space Kiss”

November 2, 2011 | 8:11 pm
Gregory Kulacki
East Asia Project Manager

http://youtu.be/dhfc9AbUEW4

This is a video of the docking of the Shenzhou VIII and Tiangong 1 spacecraft captured from a Chinese television broadcast. The two spacecraft will circle the earth together for approximately 12 days. They then will briefly part company and hook up a second time before the Shenzhou VIII begins its return to the landing site in Inner Mongolia. Tiangong 1 will be left in orbit awaiting its next visitor, Shenzhou VIX, which could carry Chinese astronauts to the experimental space lab at an as yet unspecified date in 2012.