Shenzhou docks with China space lab

Three Chinese astronauts on Monday entered an orbiting module for the first time, in a move broadcast live on China's state television network and a key step towards the nation's first space station.The astronauts, two men and a woman, passed into the Tiangong-1 ("Heavenly Palace") module a little under three hours after it docked with the Shenzhou-9 ("Divine Vessel") spacecraft.The Shenzhou-9 took off Saturday carrying the first Chinese woman to go into space, before undergoing the third automatic docking China has ever performed, and the first for a manned mission.

A spokesperson for China's manned space program said the manned Shenzhou-X spacecraft will be launched between June and August and dock with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space module.

China said Monday it will launch an unmanned spacecraft on Tuesday, taking its next step towards the goal of building its first space station by 2020.The Shenzhou VIII will blast off from the Gobi desert in China's northwest at 5:58am on Tuesday (2158 GMT Monday), the state Xinhua news agency said.It is due to join with the Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace", experimental module later this year in what would be the first Chinese docking in space. If that succeeds, the module will then dock with two more spacecraft, at least one of which will be manned, in 2012.

The unmanned Russian Progress-45 spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station and the Chinese Shenzhou-8 successfully docked with Tiangong-1 today.

China's Shenzhou-9 spacecraft returns to Earth, completing an ambitious mission that notched up a series of milestones, including the nation's first woman in orbit.

A small Russian spacecraft in orbit appears to have been struck by Chinese space junk from a 2007 anti-satellite test, likely damaging the Russian craft, possibly severely, SPACE.com has learned.

China launches Shenzhou-9 rocket with first female astronaut, it will dock with China's orbiting space laboratory.

The shuttle Atlantis docked at the orbiting International Space Station for one last hitch-up Sunday, on its final space voyage before the entire 30-year US shuttle program shuts down for good.The shuttle docked at 11:07 am (1507 GMT), just over an hour after the spacecraft performed its habitual slow backflip so that the ISS crew could take pictures of its heat shield before clasping onto the lab, NASA said.