Rocket blasts off and carries craft to nearly 400 km above the groundWentian, the first lab module of China's space station, has successfully docked with the combination of the Tianhe core module, according to the China Manned Space Agency.The Wentian module docked with the front port of Tianhe at 3:13 am Monday (Beijing Time), after it entered the planned orbit and completed state setting.The whole process took approximately 13 hours, the CMSA said.China launched its Wentian space laboratory on Sunday afternoon, sending the country's largest-ever spacecraft into Earth's orbit to become part of the Tiangong space station.Encased in a 20.5-meter-long payload, the space lab was carried by a Long March 5B rocket that blasted off at 2:22 pm from a coastal service tower in the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province.After a flight of about eight minutes, the rocket placed the craft into a low-Earth orbit nearly 400 kilometers above the ground.The Shenzhou XIV mission crew now flying with the Tiangong-mission commander Senior Colonel Chen Dong, Senior Colonel Liu Yang and Senior Colonel Cai Xuzhe-will then enter the lab module to check its condition and internal equipment, it said.In the coming weeks, Wentian will be repositioned by a robot apparatus from the forward docking port to a lateral port, where it will remain and be prepared for long-term operations, mission planners said.To prepare for Wentian's arrival, the Tianzhou 3 cargo spacecraft departed from the Tiangong station on July 17 to leave its docking hatch for the lab. The cargo ship, which was launched in September and had remained connected to Tiangong since then, will be guided by ground controllers to eventually fall back to Earth.Before Wentian's docking, Tiangong consisted of the Tianhe module, the Tianzhou 4 cargo ship and the Shenzhou XIV spacecraft.Assembled at a manufacturing and testing complex in the northern municipality of Tianjin, Wentian was transported by ship and arrived in Wenchang in late April. It underwent function and prelaunch checks over the past three months at the launch center.Rocket blasts off and carries craft to nearly 400 km above the groundWentian, the first lab module of China's space station, has successfully docked with the combination of the Tianhe core module, according to the China Manned Space Agency.The Wentian module docked with the front port of Tianhe at 3:13 am Monday (Beijing Time), after it entered the planned orbit and completed state setting.The whole process took approximately 13 hours, the CMSA said.China launched its Wentian space laboratory on Sunday afternoon, sending the country's largest-ever spacecraft into Earth's orbit to become part of the Tiangong space station.Encased in a 20.5-meter-long payload, the space lab was carried by a Long March 5B rocket that blasted off at 2:22 pm from a coastal service tower in the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province.After a flight of about eight minutes, the rocket placed the craft into a low-Earth orbit nearly 400 kilometers above the ground.The Shenzhou XIV mission crew now flying with the Tiangong-mission commander Senior Colonel Chen Dong, Senior Colonel Liu Yang and Senior Colonel Cai Xuzhe-will then enter the lab module to check its condition and internal equipment, it said.In the coming weeks, Wentian will be repositioned by a robot apparatus from the forward docking port to a lateral port, where it will remain and be prepared for long-term operations, mission planners said.To prepare for Wentian's arrival, the Tianzhou 3 cargo spacecraft departed from the Tiangong station on July 17 to leave its docking hatch for the lab. The cargo ship, which was launched in September and had remained connected to Tiangong since then, will be guided by ground controllers to eventually fall back to Earth.Before Wentian's docking, Tiangong consisted of the Tianhe module, the Tianzhou 4 cargo ship and the Shenzhou XIV spacecraft.Assembled at a manufacturing and testing complex in the northern municipality of Tianjin, Wentian was transported by ship and arrived in Wenchang in late April. It underwent function and prelaunch checks over the past three months at the launch center.