China launches Shenzhou-9 space mission with first woman astronaut

China launches space mission with first woman astronaut

China has launched its latest manned space mission - whose crew includes its first female astronaut, Liu Yang.Liu Yang(33)who  is a Major in China's Air Force has become China's first woman in space.

The Shenzhou-9 capsule rode to orbit atop a Long March rocket from the Jiuquan spaceport on the edge of the Gobi desert in June 2012

Ms Liu and her two male colleagues are heading to the Tiangong space lab

They will spend over a week living and working on the 335km-high vessel, testing new systems and conducting a number of scientific experiments

Shenzhou-9 spacecraft returns to Earth

The Chinese space capsule carrying three crew members has returned to Earth following a 13-day mission.
Images of the capsule landing in Inner Mongolia at 10:05 local time (02:05 GMT) were shown live on television.
The astronauts, including China's first woman in space, carried out a successful manual docking with the Tiangong-1 laboratory module.
The mission is a key step towards China's goal of building a space station by 2020