After Docking, Shenzhou-20 & Shenzhou-19 Crews Meet | China Space Station

After Docking, Shenzhou-20 & Shenzhou-19 Crews Meet | China Space Station

China's Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft successfully docked with the Tiangong Space Station on Thursday, April 24, 2025, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The spacecraft made a fast, automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station's core module Tianhe at 11:49 p.m. Beijing Time. The whole process took approximately 6.5 hours.

The six crew members then took group pictures for the sixth space get-together in China's aerospace history.

China launched the Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft on April 24, 2025, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station for a six-month mission. The spacecraft, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off at 17:17 (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

Shenzhou-20 is the 35th flight mission of China's crewed space program, and the fifth crewed mission during the application and development stage of China's space station.

The crew is scheduled to return to the Dongfeng landing site in north China in late October this year.

Image Credit: CGTN
Capture Date: April 24, 2025

#NASA #Space #Science #Earth #China #中国 #LongMarchRocket #Shenzhou20Spacecraft #Shenzhou20Mission #神舟二十号 #Shenzhou20Crew #Shenzhou19 #神舟十九号 #Taikonauts #ChenDong #ChenZhongrui #WangJie #Astronauts #ChinaSpaceStation #中国空间站 #TiangongSpaceStation #SpaceLaboratory #CMSA #中国载人航天工程办公室 #LongDurationMissions #HumanSpaceflight  #JiuquanSatelliteLaunchCenter #JSLC #Spaceport #STEM #Education