China is expected to launch its fourth crewed spaceflight in mid-June on a mission to perform the country's first crewed docking.
China's Shenzhou 9 spacecraft will liftoff with three crew members — including the first female "taikonaut" — to dock with the Tiangong-1 orbiting module, according to the state-run Xinhua news service.
The spacecraft and its carrier rocket, a Long March-2F, were moved to the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Saturday (June 9), a spokesperson for the nation's crewed space program said.
Credit: Xinhua
"Shenzhou 9 will perform our country's first manned space docking mission with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space lab module," said Zhou Jianping, the chief designer for the Shenzhou, as he accompanied the spacecraft to the launch platform.
Tiangong-1, or Heavenly Palace-1, was maneuvered in early June to place it into a lower orbit for the docking. Tiangong-1 was launched in Sept. 2011. Two months later, the unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft demonstrated the nation's first rendezvous and docking capabilities.
One of the two female taikonauts, Liu Yang or Wang Yaping, from the Wuhan Flight Unit, will join the Shenzhou 9 mission.