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Earlier this afternoon, the Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou-8 successfully docked with the Chinese space laboratory Tiangong-1.
FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down
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Technical exchanges of specialists and astronauts would pave the way for developing plans, processes and procedures to allow modification of the Shenzhou spacecraft to rendezvous and dock with the ISS, with joint Chinese, U.S. and Russian crews.
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Analysts believe the Shenzhou spacecraft that China is developing is an enlarged copy of the Soviet-era workhorse - the Soyuz.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | China manned space mission nears
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So Russia has since turned its focus on China, which made its first successful manned flight in 2003 aboard the Shenzhou spacecraft and plans to put a capsule on the moon in 2013.
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The unmanned Shenzhou-8 spacecraft completed a successful docking mission with the spacelab in November.
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This ultimately built the Shenzhou series of spacecraft and put them on top of a booster modified from one of China's unmanned Long March satellite-launching rockets.
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He says that the Shenzhou VI is bigger than the Shenzhou V and represents an evolution beyond the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft technology on which China had based earlier ships.
NPR: China Launches Manned Spacecraft
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Then, in a few weeks' time, China will launch another unmanned spacecraft, Shenzhou 8, and try to link the pair together.
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The two spacecraft will remain docked for a period of about six days, after which Shenzhou-9 will undock.
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