New Delhi, Nov. 1 -- China announced Saturday that its Shenzhou 21 spaceship docked with China's space station with its latest three rotation crew at the country's own record speed after a successful launch.

The entire docking process lasted around 3.5 hours - three hours shorter than the previous missions, according to China Manned Space Agency.

The Shenzhou 21 spaceship took off as planned at 11:44 p.m. local time Friday from the Jiuquan launch center in northwestern China. The three astronauts on Shenzhou 21 are planned to enter the Tianhe core module of the space station after the dock.

The crew includes pilot and mission commander Zhang Lu, who also was on the Shenzhou 15 mission to the space station two years ago.

The other two ...