Untelevised space docking signals focus on Mars and asteroids
Beijing scales back TV coverage of space mission as it looks to develop a Mars exploration project and study asteroids
Shenzhou X docked with the orbiting Tiangong I yesterday and three Chinese astronauts who had spent nearly two days in the cramped spacecraft moved into the much more spacious and well-equipped space module to live and work for 12 days.
As the second and final crew to use Tiangong I, they will spend two days longer in the space module than the crew of Shenzhou IX in June last year.
Among their tasks, on what has been described as the first service flight in the Chinese manned space programme, will be replacing interior cladding and scientific experiments.
The public relations highlight of the current mission will be a space lecture by female astronaut Major Wang Yaping to primary and high school pupils at a time yet to be announced.
Yesterday's docking manoeuvre was the fifth carried out by China and the first not broadcast live by state media.
A China Central Television staff member said that they had been told by the authorities to cut back on their coverage of the mission because the increasing number of Chinese space flights would see docking and other procedures become routine and repeated media bombardment would quickly bore the public.
"We have been told that CNN and the BBC have not had live broadcasts of routine docking at the International Space Station, and that as the state broadcaster in China shouldn't make too much of a fuss about docking from now on," the CCTV staff member said. "The scaling down of media coverage also signals the maturity of the Chinese space programme."