Full coverage: China Tiangong-2 Space Lab Launch

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's Shenzhou-11 manned spacecraft will dock with space lab Tiangong-2 through a remote-controlled automatic operation early Wednesday, according to Beijing Aerospace Control Center.

After the spacecraft successfully docks, the two astronauts, Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong, will begin their month-long stay in the space lab, during which they will conduct a series of experiments.

"The pair will be just above Chinese territory when the spacecraft has the rendezvous with the lab," said Sun Jun, deputy chief engineer of the center.

Shenzhou-11, China's sixth manned spacecraft, was sent into space Monday aboard a Long March-2F Y11 carrier rocket.

Tiangong-2 was launched on Sept. 15 and had arrived at its defined orbit, about 393 kilometers above Earth, for its rendezvous with Shenzhou-11. This will be the height that the future Chinese space station will operate.