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China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
Long March 2F/G | Shenzhou-8 & Shenzhou-8-GC
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Recorded mission coverage
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Mission brief
The mission at a glance.
This is the first docking mission for China's Shenzhou program. Being the first spacecraft to visit the Tiangong-1 space station, it was launched without crew to demonstrate spacecraft rendezvous and docking techniques. The spacecraft docked automatically to the station on 2 November 2011. A second undocking and re-docking to test accuracy and reliability of equipment and sensors in a bright environment was performed on 14 November 2011. Shenzhou 8 undocked on 17 November 2011 and landed safely back on Earth the same day.
Open the full mission →Published flight sequence
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Planned timings relative to the target. These steps do not indicate live progress.
A flight sequence has not been published for this mission.