Three Chinese astronauts on Thursday entered the country's new space station after their spaceship successfully docked with it, just over seven hours after the launch from the Gobi Desert, in a major milestone for the Communist giant's space exploration plans and its bid to become a leading space power.
China is all set to send on Thursday the first three crew members to its under-construction space station which is expected to be Beijing's eye in the sky and will rival the ageing International Space Station (ISS).
The Shenzhou 7 spacecraft, China's third manned mission, blasted off atop a 'Long March 2F' rocket at 1840 IST under clear night skies from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu Province in northwestern China.
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