First Female Astronaut From China Blasts Into Space - New York Times

SHANGHAI â€" China’s Shenzhou-9 spacecraft blasted off at 6:37 p.m. Saturday from a remote desert in western China, sending a crew of three, including the country’s first female astronaut, into space.

The Chinese astronauts are expected to complete the country’s first manned space docking mission, an important step in Beijing’s ambitious plan to build a space station by 2020.

The successful launch, powered by a Long March 2F rocket, was shown live on state television Saturday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert in western China.

The crew is expected to spend up to 20 days in space and dock with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space lab module, a kind of miniature space station, which China launched in September 2011. The crew will conduct experiments and live for a time in the space module.

China has spent billions of dollars in the last decade to build a space program to compete with the United States and Russia and plans to eventually put a man on the moon, perhaps by 2016.

The country sent its first man into space in 2003, and a Chinese astronaut did a spacewalk in 2008. The manned docking would be considered a milestone for China’s space program and the third major step in developing a space program. China completed a docking by remote control in November when the Shenzhou 8 capsule coupled with the Tiangong 1 orbital module, an event that was broadcast live on national television and observed by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao from the control center in Beijing.

Saturday’s launch included China’s first female astronaut, a 33-year-old air force pilot named Liu Yang.

“This is an important leap forward for China’s manned space program,” Wu Bangguo, the nation’s top legislator, said speaking to the three astronauts before they took flight Saturday.

The mission is China’s first manned spaceflight since September 2008.

The goal, analysts say, is to dock with the space lab as practice for future dockings with the space station that China plans to build. One crew member will remain aboard the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft as a precautionary measure while the others enter the Tiangong 1 orbital module.

While the mission itself is not unusual, analysts said it extends China’s remarkable pace in developing its space program.

“It is the speed with which China is ticking off these boxes in developing their program that is interesting,” the president of the George C. Marshall Institute, Jeff Kueter, said.

In the days leading up to Saturday’s launch, Chinese media ran several profiles of Ms. Liu, The state-run Xinhua news service reported that she is from central China’s Henan Province and now lives in Beijing with her husband. She will be in charge of medical experiments during the mission, Xinhua said.

The Soviet Union sent the first woman into space in 1963. The first American woman in space was Sally Ride, in 1983. According to China’s state-run news media, the selection process even determined that China’s first woman in space must be married, with a natural born child.  

Beijing announced a five-year plan for space exploration in December that included a space lab and collecting samples from the moon by 2016. The government has previously vowed to reach the moon and establish a manned space station by 2020.

The plan, released by the State Council, China’s cabinet, shows how Beijing intends to draw on its military and civilian resources to reach the goals. The People’s Liberation Army drives China’s space program, and civilian institutions such as universities and laboratories are subject to the military’S efforts.

China is considered a leader in the business of launching satellites, but analysts say the country is still years behind the United States. The Chinese government has relied on its aerospace engineers and spent billions of dollars in recent years to build its program.

David Barboza reported from Shanghai and Kevin Drew from Hong Kong.