| Nov 10, 2012 | |
China plans manned space launch in 2013 |
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| (Nanowerk News) China is aiming to launch its next manned space mission as early as June 2013, state media reported Saturday, as the country steps up its ambitious exploration programme. | |
| The Shenzhou-10, with three crew members, is aiming for a primary launch window in June, Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of the manned space programme, told China National Radio in an interview Friday. | |
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| A Chinese rocket takes off with the Venezuelan earth observation satellite Miranda from the Gobi desert in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu province in September. (AFP Photo) | |
| Niu, speaking on the sidelines of China's 18th Communist Party Congress that kicked off Thursday in Beijing, said officials had identified a back-up launch window for July or August. | |
| He said one of the three astronauts would likely be a woman. | |
| China sent its first female astronaut, Liu Yang, into space earlier this year on the Shenzhou-9 in the country's first manual space docking mission. | |
| The docking procedure was a major milestone in the country's ambitious space programme that has a goal of building a space station by the end of the decade. | |
| In its last white paper on space, China said it was working towards landing a man on the moon, but did not specify a time-frame. | |
| So far only the United States has achieved that feat, most recently in 1972. | |
| Beijing has said it will also attempt to land an exploratory craft on the moon for the first time in the second half of 2013 and transmit back a survey of the lunar surface. | |
| China sees its space programme as a symbol of its rising global stature, growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation. | |
| The country sent its first man into space in 2003. It completed a space walk in 2008 and an unmanned docking between a module and rocket last year. |
| Source: AFP | |
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