"The spacecraft, which blasted off on Wednesday morning with two astronauts aboard, has slightly deviated from its designed orbit and (is) moving a little closer to the Earth due to gravity," the Xinhua news agency said.

As a result, the spacecraft will undergo its first orbit maintenance operation in the early hours of Friday in order to restore the vessel to its original trajectory, Xinhua said.

Xinhua cited unnamed experts saying the maintenance will be a "normal technical operation" and similar tasks could be carried out in the future in accordance with the spacecraft's orbiting situation.

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