page_title: Tiangong-1
section_title: Autonomous orbital docking
hierarchical_section_title: Tiangong-1 / Mission profile / Autonomous orbital docking
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Kresba stanice Tchien-kung 1 (vlevo) s připojenou lodí Šen-čou (vpravo). Myslíte-li si, že neodpovídá realitě, napište na diskuzní stránku. Kresba je založena na tomto obrázku. English: Drawing of Shenzhou docked to Tiangong-1. If you believe its inaccurate than start a topic in the discussion page. Drawing is based on this image
context_page_description: Tiangong-1 was China's first prototype space station. It orbited Earth from September 2011 to April 2018, serving as both a crewed laboratory and an experimental testbed to demonstrate orbital rendezvous and docking capabilities during its two years of active operational life.
  Launched uncrewed aboard a Long March 2F/G rocket on 29 September 2011, it was the first operational component of the Tiangong program, which aims to place a larger, modular station into orbit by 2023. Tiangong-1 was initially projected to be deorbited in 2013, to be replaced over the following decade by the larger Tiangong-2 and Tiangong-3 modules, but it orbited until 2 April 2018.
  Tiangong-1 was visited by a series of Shenzhou spacecraft during its two-year operational lifetime. The first of these, the uncrewed Shenzhou 8, successfully docked with the module in November 2011, while the crewed Shenzhou 9 mission docked in June 2012. A third and final mission to Tiangong-1, the crewed Shenzhou 10, docked in June 2013. The crewed missions to Tiangong-1 were notable for including China's first female astronauts, Liu Yang and Wang Yaping.
context_section_description: The uncrewed Shenzhou 8 mission successfully docked with Tiangong-1 on 2 November 2011 GMT, marking China's first orbital docking. Shenzhou 8 undocked from Tiangong-1 on 14 November, before successfully completing a second rendezvous and docking, thus testing the reusability of the docking system. Shenzhou 8 deorbited on 17 November 2011, and landed intact in Siziwang Banner in Inner Mongolia. After the mission, the CNSA reported that Tiangong-1's systems were in optimal condition.
caption: Diagram of Tiangong-1 (left) docked to a Shenzhou spacecraft (right).
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