The crew successfully docked with the space station just over seven hours after the launch.The moment of contact was met with applause from mission control in China. Their Shenzhou-12 capsule took off atop its Long March 2F rocket on Thursday. Lift-off from the Jiuquan satellite launch centre in the Gobi desert was at 09:22 Beijing time (01:22 GMT). The launch and subsequent mission are another demonstration of China's growing confidence and capability in the space domain.