China successfully launches its fifth manned space mission
11 Jun 2013
China today successfully launched its fifth manned space mission that will see three astronauts, including China's second female astronaut, set up an experimental space lab over the next 15 days.
The Shenzhou-10 spacecraft carrying three astronauts blasted off from a remote site in the Gobi desert in China's far west at 5:38 pm (0938 GMT), on a 15-day mission to an experimental space lab in the latest step towards the development of a space station.
The launch was telecast live on state television.
Once in orbit, the three-member crew of the Shenzhou-10 spacecraft carrying Wang Yaping (33) Nie Haisheng (48), a Major General in the PLA and Zhang Xiaoguang (47), will dock with the Tiangong-1 (Heavenly Palace), a trial space laboratory module.
Wang Yaping, China's second woman astronaut after Liu Yang, will be in charge of monitoring conditions, space experiments and taking care of fellow crewmembers, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.
The astronauts will carry out various experiments and test the module's systems for the next 15 days. Wang will also hold a ''space lesson'' through video conferencing during which she ''will illustrate the phenomena of physics through interactions with the students and teachers on Earth'', Xinhua added.
This will be China's second manned docking mission after the Shenzhou-9 launch in June 2012, and the longest.
China intends to build a space station by 2020.
