China's Shenzhou-9 spacecraft successfully docked with the country's orbiting Tiangong 1 space station test platform on Monday, pulling off a space maneuver previously only accomplished by the U.S. and Russian space agencies.
Three Chinese astronauts, including 33-year-old Liu Yang, the country's first woman in space, lifted off Saturday atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
The trio's Shenzhou-9 capsule rendezvoused with the Tiangong 1 module more than 200 miles above the Earth. The remote-controlled docking process took under ten minutes, according to media reports and was shown live on state-run television in China.
Liu Yang and her fellow astronauts Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang are also scheduled to conduct a manual docking later as part of their mission, which is set to last for at least ten days.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has now sent eight astronauts into space, including two-time space traveler Jing.
Liu Yang was one of two female candidates for the mission from the Chinese Air Force's Wuhan Flight Unit, according to China's official Xinhua news agency. She was selected over Wang Yaping.
The 9.4-ton Tiangong-1 module, launched and placed in orbit last September, is not a fully developed space station but rather a testing platform for rendezvous and docking missions like the one upon which the Shenzhou-9 is currently embarked. The CNSA aims to eventually launch a fully functioning space station as part of the agency's Tiangong, or "Heavenly Palace" program.
The unmanned Shenzou-8 spacecraft successfully docked with Tiangong-1 last November. Tiangong-1 is scheduled to be de-orbited in 2013 following the Shenzou-9 mission and another manned mission to the module.
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