The Shenzhou 8 was a Chinese unmanned spacecraft that was launched into orbit in early November 2011. The ship was launched into space by the Changzheng 2F launch rocket from the Jiuquan spaceport. The main task of Shenzhou 8 was to test and test in practice the possibility of docking to the Tiangong 1 orbital module. The docking operation was carried out during the mission twice (2 and 14 November 2011) and both maneuvers were fully successful. On one occasion, however, also successfully, the Shenzhou 8 unberthing maneuver from the Tiangong 1 module was carried out. Equally important was the fact that Shenzhou 8 successfully returned to Earth on November 17, 2011, after less than 17 days in space. The experience gained from the operation and maneuvers conducted by Shenzhou 8 had a significant impact on the construction and construction of the Shenzhou 9 and 10 ships, which have already carried out manned space flights.
Tiangong 1 (Eng. Heavenly Palace No. 1) was a Chinese spacecraft, or rather an orbital module. The weight of the ship was 8,506 kg, its length was 10.4 meters, and its diameter was 3.35 meters. The ship's crew consists of 2 to 3 people. Tiangong 1 was placed in orbit in September 2011, and already in November, the Shenzhou 8 unmanned spacecraft successfully moored to it. Several days after the first attempt, Shenzhou 8 was remotely unmoored and successfully carried out the second mooring maneuver again. Finally, on June 18, 2012, the manned ship Shenzhou 9 moored to the Tiangong 1 module, and Chinese astronauts (called Taikonauts) boarded the module and stayed on it for 10 days, then happily returned to Earth. In 2013, a manned spacecraft moored again successfully to Tiangong 1. The orbital module burned down in the Earth's atmosphere in April 2018 - as originally planned. Assume that the Chinese space agency treated the docking and sending of manned spacecraft to Tiangong 1 as vital elements of trials and tests before sending the taikonauts to their own - much larger - space station.