Manned spacecraft flown to launch site

THE new Shenzhou-10 manned spacecraft arrived at its launch center in northwest China yesterday in preparation for the country's next manned space mission, its longest so far.

A Russian IL-76 freighter was used to transport it from Beijing to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu Province after it had passed pre-delivery tests.

The spacecraft will undergo further checks at the center and launch sometime between June and August, carrying three astronauts to an experimental space module, said Bao Weimin, director of the science and technology committee of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

A woman is expected to be one of the astronauts on board the Shenzhou-10 as it docks with orbiting lab module Tiangong-1 several times in tests.

"The three astronauts will stay in orbit for 15 days, including 12 days when they will work inside the coupled complex of the Shenzhou-10 and Tiangong-1," said Zhou Jianping, head designer of China's manned space program.

Chinese astronauts carried out the first manned docking with the module last June and lived and worked in it for about 10 days. They included the country's first female astronaut Liu Yang.

"A new section of the Shenzhou-10 mission is where the spacecraft will try to orbit the Tiangong module and dock with it on different sides," Bao said.

The rendezvous and docking exercises will be carried out both manually and automatically.

According to Bao, the aim of the mission is to gather experience for the country's plans to build its own space station.

"To build a space station, some space modules have to dock with each other from different directions in space, so the orbiting test is quite crucial," Bao told China Central Television.

The objectives of the new mission include further assessing the performance of the docking system, the module's capability in supporting life and work, and the conditions of the astronauts, Bao said.