The two Chinese taikonauts who blasted into orbit on the Shenzhou VI spacecraft on Wednesday have successfully completed the first of a planned five days in space.
Former fighter pilots Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng blasted off on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in north-west China at 0900 local time (0100 GMT).
About nine hours later, they moved from the re-entry capsule at the centre of the craft into the front orbital module, where they will spend most of their mission, according to the country’s official news agency, Xinhua.
They have already surpassed China's first crewed spaceflight in October 2003 in both flight time and onboard activities. In the previous Shenzhou V flight, taikonaut Yang Liwei spent the entire 21-hour flight strapped into the re-entry capsule, eating cold food and essentially using a diaper to relieve himself.
In the Shenzhou VI mission, the two crew members can shed their bulky space suits in the orbital module, take turns resting in sleeping bags, and have use of a toilet.
They can also warm their meals, which include 50 menu items including beef with orange peel, rice and strawberries. But the reduced gravity means they will have to forego the use of chopsticks in favour of forks and spoons.
The taikonauts are expected to conduct tests of their own reactions to microgravity as well as the sturdiness of their vehicle. Xinhua reports that on Thursday, they will open and close capsule doors, put on and take off their space suits and use onboard equipment more forcefully than necessary "so as to test the disturbance of people's movement on the spacecraft".
The Shenzhou (Chinese for "divine ship") is an upgraded, larger version of Russia's Soyuz vehicle. Like the Soyuz, it is divided into three sections: the orbital module, the re-entry capsule and a service module that carries fuel and supplies.
It carries two pairs of solar panels rather than the single pair on Soyuz, giving it about three times as much power as the Russian craft. The extra solar panels lie on the orbital module, which also boasts its own propulsion and control systems.
As in the Shenzhou V mission, this module is expected to remain in orbit for perhaps six months after the two crew members return to Earth in the re-entry capsule. Parachutes will buffer that capsule when it lands in the grassy plains of Inner Mongolia in northern China.
The flight should also test China's tracking system, which relies on radar stations in China, Namibia and on four ships positioned around the world.
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