The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft with its three-person crew onboard including China's first woman astronaut, Liu Yang, carried out its first manned docking with an experimental space module on Monday, Reuters reported.
The manned space docking mission is a major step towards development in China's space technology. It is a significant step to achieve China's goal of having a space station by 2020.
With the successful launch of Shenzhou-9 capsule, China becomes the third country next to US and Russia to have launched a manned spacecraft on its own. America successfully completed launching its spacecraft long back in 1960s.
The spacecraft took off on Saturday evening from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China and docked with China's first space laboratory module, Tiangong-1 module, which is orbiting the outer space.The astronauts will work onboard for more than a week. The docking was shown live on China's state television network.
Yang along with two other Chinese astronauts - Liu Wang and team head Jing Haipeng - have been sent to fulfill the country's ambitious space mission.
The trio entered Tiangong 1, which is a trial module, nearly three hours after it was linked up with their spacecraft. During the 13-day mission, two astronauts reportedly will test the module's life-support system, while the third one will remain in the capsule in order to deal with any emergency situations.
With the first female entering the space, the Chinese space planner has made some necessary changes to suit the requirements of the lady astronaut in the spacecraft.
Apparently, the crew has introduced low-fat food in the spacecraft and stocked it with blood-enriching food stuff like deserts and chocolates.
"Astronauts rely on good food to focus on work," Chen Shanguang, the general director of the astronaut system department, said, according to a Times of India report.
In addition, to meet the privacy requirement of the female astronaut a certain section of the Tiangong-1 module has been separated by a curtain for Yang to change.
"We also developed a new series of spacesuits for women astronauts," Li Tanqiu, deputy chief designer, said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
