CCTV
China marks another spaceflight milestone... At 6:37 PM, Beijing Time today, a Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft blasted off into Earth orbit to rendezvous and dock with China's Tiangong-1 space module...which has been in orbit since last September. While China is about to make history by having its very first crewed space station within the next two days, it also achieved the milestone of launching its first female taikonaut, Liu Yang, into space. Yang, a 33-year-old pilot for the Chinese Air Force, and her two crew members will arrive at Tiangong-1 this Sunday—and return to Earth after what should be a 13-day mission at the prototype outpost.
China hopes to have a bigger and permanent space station in low-Earth orbit (LEO) as early as 2020...the same year that the International Space Station is scheduled to be decommissioned and de-orbited from LEO.
CCTV
CCTV
Chinese Ministry of Defense
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