China's historic spacecraft docking mission this month will
involve a female astronaut, state-run Xinhua reported. Either
Liu Yang or Wang Yaping -- selected among China's first batch of
women astronauts -- will be among the three-person crew to
launch aboard the Shenzhou-9, according to Xinhua. If all goes
well with the launch, which is planned for mid-June, the
Shenzhou-9 will dock with China's orbiting space laboratory,
making the nation the third after the United States and Russia
to complete a manned space docking. As a precaution in case of
an emergency, one of the crewmembers will not board the lab, a
spokesperson for the space program said in February. China has
big aspirations for its space program with hopes to build a
space station like the International Space Station and to
conduct a manned mission to the moon. On Saturday the Shenzhou-9
and its carrier rocket, the Long March-2F, were moved to a
launch platform in northwest China's Gansu province to allow
scientists to conduct tests before the lau