The three astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou-18 spaceship have entered the country's space station and met with another astronaut trio on Friday, starting a new round of in-orbit crew handover.

The Shenzhou-17 crew opened the hatch at 5:04 a.m. (Beijing Time). The three space station occupants greeted the new arrivals, and they took group pictures.

The space get-together of the two crews kicked off the fourth in-orbit crew rotation in China's space station.

According to the China Manned Space Agency, the six astronauts will live and work together for about 5 days to complete planned tasks and handover work.