China's Shenzhou-16 crewed spaceship docks with space station combination

BEIJING, May 30 -- China's Shenzhou-16 crewed spaceship successfully docked with the space station combination on Tuesday, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The spaceship, launched on Tuesday morning, conducted a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the space station, and docked with the radial port of its core module Tianhe at 4:29 p.m. Tuesday (Beijing Time), said the CMSA.

The whole process took approximately 6.5 hours, the CMSA said.

The astronaut trio aboard Shenzhou-16 will then enter the Tianhe module and the three astronauts of the Shenzhou-15 mission have got ready for their arrival, it said.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 9:31 a.m. Tuesday (Beijing Time).