Status
Success
Rocket
Mission Details
Shenzhou 11
Shenzhou 11 was a crewed spaceflight of the Shenzhou program of China, launched on 17 October 2016. It was China's sixth crewed space mission, and its longest to date, at 33 days. Two days after launch, it docked with the Tiangong-2 space laboratory, which had been launched on September 15, 2016.
The mission's main objective was to rendezvous and dock with the Tiangong-2 space laboratory and gain experience from a 30-day residence, and test its life-support systems.
In the two days after the launch, it changed its orbit five times to arrive 52 kilometers behind the Tiangong-2 space lab. It autonomously rendezvoused and docked with Tiangong-2 at 3:24 p.m. EDT on October 18, 2016, while both spacecraft were at an altitude of 393 km.
The crew landed successfully after the 33-day mission on 18 November 2016. The reentry module of the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft landed in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia around 2:15 pm (China time) after undocking from the space lab on 17 November.