China has successfully carried out its first space docking exercise.

China’s Xinhua News Agency said the unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou-8 docked with space lab module Tiangong-1 around 2:47 a.m., Korea time, on Thursday.

The news agency noted that the docking process took place at more than 343 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

China is now the third country to have succeeded in completing a space docking mission after the United States and Russia. It plans to launch a space laboratory around 2016 and build a space station by 2020.