IT Home reported on April 26 that the China Manned Space Engineering Office announced that the combination of the Shenzhou 18 manned spacecraft and the space station successfully achieved autonomous and rapid rendezvous and docking, and the Shenzhou 18 astronaut crew entered the orbital module from the spacecraft return module.
At 5:04 a.m. Beijing time today, the Shenzhou-17 astronaut crew on the mission in orbit successfully opened the "home door" to welcome the Shenzhou-18 astronaut crew from afar to settle in the "Tiangong".
Subsequently, the two astronaut crews took a "family photo" and jointly reported safety to the people of the whole country who were concerned about them.
This is the fourth space rendezvous. The six astronauts of Shenzhou-17 and Shenzhou-18 will work and live together on the space station for about five days to complete various scheduled tasks.
IT Home previously reported that this mission is the 3rd manned mission in the space station application and development stage, and the 32nd mission of the manned space project. The astronaut crew for the Shenzhou-18 manned mission is composed of three astronauts, Ye Guangfu, Li Cong, and Li Guangsu, with Ye Guangfu as the commander. The crew consisted of 1 second batch of astronauts and 2 third batch astronauts, all of whom were "post-80s".
During their stay in orbit, the Shenzhou-18 astronaut crew will welcome the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-19 manned spacecraft, and are scheduled to return to the Dongfeng landing site in late October this year.