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Report: China plans manned space launch this month


BEIJING — China will launch three astronauts this month to dock with an orbiting experimental module, and the crew might include its first female space traveler, a government news agency said Saturday.

People watch the Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft which moves to the launch pad at the Jiuquan launch center in Jiuquan, China's northwest Gansu province, Saturday, June 9, 2012. China will launch three astronauts this month to dock with an orbiting experimental module, and the crew might include its first female space traveler, a government news agency said Saturday. AP

A rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft was moved to a launch pad in China’s desert northwest on Saturday for the mid-June flight, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing an space program spokesman.

The three-member crew will dock with and live in the Tiangong 1 orbital module launched last year, Xinhua said. The government has not said how long the mission will last.

Xinhua cited Niu Hongguang, deputy commander in chief of the manned space program, as saying the crew “might include female astronauts.”

The government said in 2010 that two female air force pilots had joined the astronaut program but has disclosed no other details.

China’s space program has made steady progress since a 2003 launch that made it only the third nation to put a man in space on its own. Two more manned missions have followed, one including a space walk.

China completed its first space rendezvous in November when the unmanned Shenzhou 8 docked with the Tiangong 1 by remote control. Tiangong 1 was launched on Sept. 29.

Over the next few days, scientists will test the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, the Long March 2F rocket and ground systems, Xinhua said, citing the spokesman.

During the flight, one crew member will remain aboard the Shenzhou 9 “as a precautionary measure in case of emergency” while the others enter Tiangong 1, Xinhua said.

China has scheduled two space docking missions for this year and plans to complete a manned space station around 2020 to replace Tiangong 1. At about 60 tons, the Chinese station will be considerably smaller than the 16-nation International Space Station.

Beijing launched its independent space station program after being turned away from the International Space Station, largely due to U.S. objections. Washington is wary of the Chinese program’s military links and of sharing technology with an economic and political rival.

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Tags: first female space traveller , Rocketship , Shenzhou 9 spacecraft , space launch , space traveller , Xinhua News Agency

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/EBYXKMZHYRBRLRE424C5EQ6XOU Hunya

    I just love Filipino’s wit & humor.  Always looking at the fun side of things. Never miss reading the comments. There’s always something to laugh at. That’s why we should all be proud we’re Filipinos.

  • Vernon UK London

    This is the outcome of your being a thief. You stole the US technology and now you are making it as if your own. Chinese- magnanakaw!

  • Vernon UK London

    Greedy Chinese. They even want to take the sky above them. 

  • IanAlera

    MAG CRASH SANA.

  • palaigit

    thats the problem, if only our own ancestors, when they were trading and voyaging could have made a map as well, to at least document things.. the problem was, i think the pinoy voyagers went to other lands to meet other native hotties, drank coconut wine and ate kinilaw..hehe
    here comes the chinese constantly drawing and documenting, well i think they have nothing to do since those voyagers were eunuchs. walang ikakasaya pag wala na si manoy

  • http://twitter.com/Borogol Borogol

    stupid chinese… I want to challenge them to a CTF match… they are just plain script kiddies… and cant even take down an IIS 7.0 website..

    • palaigit

      by the way, are the filipino techy geniuses retaliating from the chinese onslaught of web hacking? i sure hope we are, to get back at them..

  • g g

    World be careful…. pretty soon, China will start claiming the entire space because the Han Dynasty saw the sky first as chronicled a thousand years ago.

    • palaigit

      haha nice!



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