BEIJING - The three astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou XVIII spaceship have entered the country's space station and met with another astronaut trio on Friday, starting a new round of in-orbit crew handover.

The Shenzhou XVII crew opened the hatch at 5:04 am (Beijing Time). The three space station occupants greeted the new arrivals, and they took group pictures.

According to the China Manned Space Agency, the six astronauts will live and work together for about 5 days to complete planned tasks and handover work

The space get-together of the two crews kicked off the fourth in-orbit crew rotation in China's space station.

According to the China Manned Space Agency, the six astronauts will live and work together for about 5 days to complete planned tasks and handover work.  

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The agency earlier said the Shenzhou XVIII manned spaceship successfully docked with the space station combination early on Friday morning.

The spaceship made a fast, automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station's core module Tianhe at 3:32 am.

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

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China Thursday.