The Shenzhou XX manned spaceship successfully docked with the space station combination late on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The spaceship made a fast, automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station's core module Tianhe at 11:49 pm.

The whole process took approximately 6.5 hours, the agency said.

The three Shenzhou XX crew members — mission commander Senior Colonel Chen Dong, Colonel Chen Zhongrui and Colonel Wang Jie — got off the ground at 5:17 pm as their spaceship's carrier, a 20-storey-tall Long March 2F rocket, soared into the sky from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert.