The latest Shenzhou mission was launched on Saturday, taking China’s first female astronaut into orbit. Thirty-three-year old Liu Yang flies with Commander Jing Haipeng, 46, and fellow flight engineer, Liu Wang, 42.
It is China‘s fourth manned mission and another opportunity to see how far the Asian nation has developed its space technology. It follows on from last year’s unmanned Shenzhou-8 outing which completed successful rendezvous and docking maneuvers at Tiangong.
That gave Beijing authorities the confidence to put astronauts on the current flight. Since Saturday‘s lift-off from the Jiuquan spaceport, Shenzhou-9 has been working through a series of engine burns to take it higher and closer to the orbiting space lab.
Liu Wang will take the lead in this activity. “We’ve done over 1,500 simulations,” he said during the pre-launch press conference. “We‘ve mastered the techniques and skills. China has first class technologies and astronauts, and therefore I’m confident we will fulfill the manual rendezvous.”
The Shenzhou-9 crew are expected back on Earth before the end of the month.
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reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com