China's Shenzhou-9 spacecraft will make a manned flight this month, the country's space agency has announced. <\/p>\n
According to Xinhua, the spacecraft and its carrier rocket have already been moved to a launch pad at the Jiuquan space center in northwest China. <\/p>\n
It is expected to take off \"sometime in mid-June,\" a space agency official told the state news agency. <\/p>\n
More from GlobalPost: China's five-year space plans revealed <\/p>\n
Three astronauts will be aboard. The crew might include female astronauts, said Niu Hongguang, deputy commander of China's manned space program. <\/p>\n
If so, they would be the first Chinese women to go into space, according to Agence France Presse. <\/p>\n
The astronauts will dock Shenzhou-9 manually with China's orbitingTiangong-1 space laboratory, where two of them will board and conduct experiments. <\/p>\n
It will be the first time a manned spacecraft has docked with Tiangong-1, which has been in orbit around earth since Sept. 2011. China hopes the space lab will help it one day develop its own space station. <\/p>\n
This month's flight will be China's fourth manned launch since it became the third country to send a man into space in 2003, the BBC said. <\/p>\n
In December, China said it was studying the possibility of landing one of its astronauts on the moon. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
See original here:<\/p>\n
Shenzhou-9: China to make manned space flight mid-June<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" China's Shenzhou-9 spacecraft will make a manned flight this month, the country's space agency has announced. Continue reading