China may send its first woman into space
CHINA: China may send its first woman into space this year
after including female astronauts in the team training for its first
manned space docking, state media said Monday.
Three astronauts will blast off on board Shenzhou (“Divine Vessel”)
IX between June and August to conduct a manual docking with the
Tiangong-1 module currently orbiting the Earth, Xinhua news agency said,
quoting an official with China’s manned space programme.
A team of astronauts, including an unspecified number of women, are
training for the docking mission and the three-person crew will be
selected at the last minute, said Niu Hongguang, deputy
commander-in-chief.
After the space rendezvous, the astronauts will move temporarily
intoTiangong-1 (“Heavenly Palace”), where they will perform scientific
experiments.
The mission is the latest step in a programme aimed at giving China a
permanent space station by 2020.
In November, the unmanned Shenzhou VIII spacecraft returned to Earth
after completing two space dockings with Tiangong-1 in the nation’s
first ever hard-to-master “space kiss”, bringing together two vessels in
high speed orbit.
Mastering space docking technology is a delicate manoeuvre that the
Russians and Americans successfully completed in the 1960s.
Tiangong-1, China’s first space station module, was launched in
September.
China sees its space programme as a symbol of its global stature,
growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party’s success in
turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.
The current programme aims to provide China with a space station in
which a crew can live independently for several months, as at the old
Russian Mir facility or the International Space Station.
XINHUA |