A group photo of China's Shenzhou-17 and Shenzhou-18 crews in the space station. /CFP
The three astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou-18 spaceship entered the country's space station and met with the Shenzhou-17 crew on Friday, starting a new in-orbit crew handover.
The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft conducts a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the core module of China Space Station. /China Media Group
The spacecraft successfully docked at the radial port of the space station's core module at 3:32 a.m. on Friday after a fast automated rendezvous and docking process lasting for about 6.5 hours, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
The Shenzhou-18 crew then entered the orbital module from the spacecraft's re-entry module.
The Shenzhou-17 crew welcome the Shenzhou-18 crew in the space station. /China Media Group
China's Shenzhou-17 and Shenzhou-18 send greetings during group photoing. /China Media Group
The Shenzhou-17 crew opened the hatch at 5:04 a.m. (Beijing Time), greeting the new arrivals, and they took group pictures.
The space get-together kicked off the fourth in-orbit crew rotation in the China Space Station.
According to the CMSA, the six astronauts will live and work together for about five days to complete planned tasks and handover work.
(With input from Xinhua)