A Chinese spacecraft carrying three astronauts has carried out a manual docking with an orbiting module, a first for the country. The Shenzhou 9 capsule completed the maneuver with the Tiangong 1 module shortly before 1 p.m. (0500 GMT) Sunday. The docking was shown live on national television. It follows a docking last week that was carried out by remote control from a ground base in China, according to a report of the Associated Press. Astronauts have been living and working in the module for several days as part of preparations for manning a permanent space station. China is hoping to join the United States and Russia as the only countries to send independently maintained space stations into orbit.
