New Delhi, Nov. 2 -- A crew of three Chinese astronauts - including the country's youngest ever - successfully docked with the Tiangong space station early on Saturday. They were joined by an unusual group of passengers: four laboratory mice.

According to news agency AFP, the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft linked up with Tiangong at 3:22 a.m. (1922 GMT Friday), around three and a half hours after lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China aboard a Long March-2F rocket.

Beijing has made no secret of its ambition to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030 and eventually build a permanent lunar base, aiming to compete with long-established programmes run by the United States and Russia.

The Tiangong station, which houses ...