A spacecraft launched by China

China‘s space programme on November 3 hailed its first ever docking exercise in outer space, conducted by an unmanned spacecraft, launched this week, with a space laboratory module — a step seen as a crucial landmark along China‘s road to launch its own space station in the next decade.Early on November 3 , the unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou-8 docked with the Tiangong-1 laboratory module which was launched on September 29, a development described by theChinaspace programme as a “major technological breakthrough”.Chinais now only the third country to accomplish a docking exercise in space, after theUnited StatesandRussia. Both those countries carried out similar exercises more than three decades ago.