China announced Saturday that its Shenzhou 21 spaceship docked with China’s space station with its latest three rotation crew at a record speed after its successful launch.
The entire docking process lasted around 3.5 hours three hours shorter than the previous missions, according to China Manned Space Agency.
The Shenzhou 21 spaceship took off as planned at 11:44 pm local time Friday from the Jiuquan launch centre in northwestern China. The three astronauts on Shenzhou 21 will enter the Tianhe core module of the space station.
The crew includes pilot and mission commander Zhang Lu, who also was on the Shenzhou 15 mission to the space station two years ago.
The other two are flying for the first time. Wu Fei, 32, an engineer, is the country’s youngest astronaut to join a spaceflight. Zhang Hongzhang is a payload specialist who was a researcher focusing on new energy and new materials before becoming an astronaut.
Zhang said the team would turn the space station into a utopia by d
