Hu praises space docking

BEIJING - President Hu Jintao promoted independent innovation in a speech he gave at a rally on Friday to celebrate the country's first successful space-docking mission.

After lifting off on Nov 1 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the unmanned Shenzhou-VIII spacecraft rendezvoused and docked twice with the unmanned space lab module Tiangong-1, which had been launched from the same site on Sept 29.

Experts said the mission had paved the way for China's plan to assemble a space station around 2020.