China plans to send second woman
astronaut into space in 2013
Liu
Yang (in Pic) China's first woman astronaut. China is planning to send its
second woman astronaut into space in 2013.
BEIJING:
China on Sunday said it plans to send its second woman astronaut into space on
the country's fifth manned mission in 2013 to fine tune the docking
technologies of its space station being built to rival Russia's Mir.
"It
is possible that female astronauts will be on board," Yang Liwei, China's
first astronaut and deputy director of the country's manned space programme
said. The exact date of the launch of next year's mission will be decided after
a full assessment of previous missions by spacecrafts Shenzhou-8 and Shenzhou-9
which docked with the module of the space station currently orbiting the earth.
Yang
said the Shenzhou-10 manned spacecraft will carry three astronauts into space,
and that the crew will include veterans and women. The candidates will be
decided early next year. China sent its first woman, an air force pilot Liu
Yang to space early this year.
Together
with Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang, she went into space aboard Shenzhou-9 on June
16 and conducted a series of scientific tests during the 13-day mission that
was hailed as a great success. Next year's space mission mainly aims to
consolidate and improve docking techniques, conduct more scientific experiments
and solve problems discovered in the previous missions, Yang said.
"One
success doesn't mean success every time. We would like to have more practice
and improve the quality," Yang added. Yang also said Shenzhou-10 mission
will adjust the working schedule and routine of astronauts laying the
foundation for building its first space station by 2020. "Once
established, the space station will provide a national-level platform for
scientific research in outer space. So the next mission will also focus on
technical breakthroughs in environmental control and life support
systems," he said.
After
the Shenzhou-10 space mission, China is scheduled to launch the Tiangong-2
space lab module to research supply transport by cargo spaceships, another
milestone for China's space programme.
"Space
travel won't be a problem for China in the future," Yang said.
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