Manned spacecraft Shenzhou IX was sent into space by a Long March-2F carrier rocket on June 16, 2012. The spacecraft accommodated three astronauts, Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang and Liu Yang. The 33-year-old Liu Yang became the first Chinese woman in space. Shenzhou IX switched into automatic controlled flight mode on June 18 and automatically docked with Tiangong-1 hours later. On June 24, the two docked under manual operation by the astronauts. The team returned to Earth on June 29 after 13 days in space. Since then, Tiangong-1 has entered its automatic operation orbit. (Photo/81.cn)
