Chinese astronauts dock with orbital lab

BBC : China’s Shenzhou-10 capsule successfully docked with the country’s orbital laboratory Tiangong-1 . The capsule is carrying three astronautsâmdash;Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang, and Wang Yaping, who is the second Chinese woman in space. In the 12 days they will be aboard Tiangong-1, the astronauts will perform various experiments and hold live video classes for Chinese students. They will also practice manually docking with the lab, which will require separating the capsule before flying it around the lab and reconnecting. This is China’s fifth manned space mission, and the third to the Tiangong-1 lab, which has been in orbit for more than 600 days. It will also be the last visit to the lab, which will run out of supplies for astronauts. The Chinese space agency has announced that the lab will be deorbited and crashed into the Pacific Ocean, but it has not said when that will occur. A replacement lab, Tiangong-2, will likely be launched in the next few years.