China to send first female astronaut into space

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http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_811283.html

China said on Friday a female astronaut will be among the three-person team on board the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft, which will launch on Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The Shenzhou-9 will take off at 1037 GMT (6.37pm Singapore time) on Saturday from the Jiuquan space base in the Gobi desert for the country's fourth manned space launch, with Ms Liu Yang, 33, and two male astronauts on board, Xinhua said.

They will perform China's first manned space docking, a highly technical procedure that brings together two vessels in high speed orbit and is the latest step in a plan aimed at giving the country a permanent space station by 2020.

Ms Liu's mission, which has been heavily trailed in the Chinese media, will make China the third country after the Soviet Union and United States to send a woman into space using its own technology, and represent another propaganda coup for the one-party communist state.