Six hours and 32 minutes after three astronauts 1．(take)off from a base in the Gobi Desert on a clear sunny morning,their spacecraft,Shenzhou 12,joined with the station.

With that,the Chinese station,2．(call)Tiangong or Heavenly Palace,became one of two places in orbit with residents.The completion of Tiangong will be yet another milestone for an ambitious space program 3．recent missions have included bringing samples back from the moon and 4．(land)a robotic rover on Mars.Since the station remains under 5．(construct),the three astronauts’main task is essentially to move in,begin installing 6．(equip)like cameras and start testing various functions,including life support and waste management.

China previously launched two,short-lived model space stations,7．were also called Tiangong,in 2011 and 2016.This one 8．(intend)to stay in space for a much longer time,serving for the next decade as a laboratory in orbit.Officials said the station would allow Chinese astronauts and scientists on the ground 9．(carry)out complex operations and do experiments in the weightless space environment.Over the past few years,China 10．(invite)international partners in at least nine experiments.