According to a report from China's official news agency, the nation will launch its next manned spacecraft within the next few days. This mission will have a crew of three, and may include the first female taikonaut.
The objective of the flight will be to dock with the Tiangong 1 space station module. Upon a successful docking, one taikonaut would remain in the Shengzhou 9 capsule, as a precaution, while the other two would enter the module. The report did not say how long the mission is scheduled to last.
A successful mission would be another step forward for the Chinese manned space program. China plans to have its own 60-ton space station in orbit by 2020-- much smaller than ISS, but perhaps comparable to the American Skylab of the 1970s. China is pursuing its own space station after the U. S. kept it from becoming a partner in the ISS program because of concerns about technology transfer. The Chinese space program is under the management of the People's Liberation Army.
China is also looking at a possible manned lunar landing by 2025.
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