First Chinese woman in space
Liu Yang became the country's first woman in space when a Long March-2F rocket blasted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gobi desert on June 16 carrying her and two other Chinese astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft.
Astronauts enter Tiangong-1
On June 18, Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang and Liu Yang entered the cabin of the Tiangong-1 lab module from the manned Shenzhou-9 spacecraft following a successful automatic docking procedure, becoming the first group of Chinese to board an orbiter in space.
First manual space docking
June 24, Chinese astronauts successfully completed China's first manual space docking when the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft connected with the Tiangong-1. Previously, the unmanned Shenzhou-8 completed China's first automatic docking with the lab module on November 1, 2011.
Longest stay in space
The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft is scheduled to manually disengage from the Tiangong-1 module on June 28, and take the three astronauts back to Earth on June 29, which will set a record for the longest trip in the history of China's manned space program.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency) |