China plans to launch another manned spacecraft Shenzhou X in early June 2013, a lead space program official said here Saturday. Like in the Shenzhou IX mission, the crew might include two men astronauts and a woman, who are scheduled to enter the Tiangong-1 space lab module, Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of China's manned space program, said on the sidelines of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Read more
Woman may be on next year's manned mission, Xin Dingding and Wang Qian report. Next year, China will launch another spacecraft, Shenzhou X, to dock with Tiangong-1 to repeatedly test the space docking technology, Wu Ping, spokeswoman for the manned space program, said on Sunday. Chen Shanguang, director of the Astronaut Centre of China, said on Friday that the crew of Shenzhou X is likely to include a female astronaut, too. Read more