A Chinese spacecraft successfully completed the country’s first manual docking in orbit, a milestone in a program to build a space station by the end of the decade

A Chinese spacecraft on Sunday successfully completed the country's first manual docking in orbit, a milestone in a program to build a space station by the end of the decade.
  
The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft linked with the Tiangong-1 module just over a week into a manned space mission which includes China's first female astronaut, following an automatic docking on Monday.
  
"The first manual docking has been completed normally," mission control announced in a live broadcast on state television. Veteran astronaut Liu Wang used a joystick-like device to carry out the maneuver, with the official Xinhua news agency describing him as "threading the needle".
  
"This first manual docking was perfect. At the last moment, the alignment was better than last time (the automatic docking)," Zhang Liyan of the government's China Manned Space Office told state television.