China plans a manned flight to space station module Tiangong 1 for mid-June, the first Chinese manned space flight in 2008 and fourth in the country's space exploration history.

The rocket ship that will carry Shenzhou 9 June was transported to a launch site in northwestern China. China announced that the ship will take three astronauts on board - including maybe a woman - and is heading for space station Tiangong, where astronauts will conduct scientific experiments.

The launch of Shenzhou 9 is part of the Chinese space program, made to give this country a permanent space station, of 60 tons, with astronauts on board, which could become operational around the year 2020.

On September 29, 2011, Long March 2F rocket launched Tiangong-1, the first module in the future chinese space station.

A month later, China has managed to connect Tiangong-1 to Shenzhou 8, a spacecraft that had astronauts on board. Connecting on orbit, made for the first, was a crucial step in the conquest of space, already performed by russians and americans since the 1960s.

Connection was made under a program aimed at equipping China within a decade, with an orbital station, in which a crew of astronauts will be able to live in with complete autonomy for several months, like within former russian space station MIR and the current International Space Station (ISS).

China has not been accepted to participate in the International Space Station project, developed through 16 nations collaboration, because, apparently, the U.S. objected.

On the other hand, China was the third country that has managed to independently send a man into space in 2003.

See some pics with the rocket and a VIDEO about the event below.


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