JIUQUAN, June 10 (Xinhua)
-- The Shenzhou-10 manned spacecraft will
start China's application-orientated flight
for the country's space program,
a spokeswoman with China's manned
space program said Monday.
In
the upcoming mission, the Shenzhou-10
spacecraft powered by a Long March-2F
carrier rocket will transport astronauts
and supplies to the orbiting space
module Tiangong-1, spokeswoman Wu Ping
told a press conference.
During
the Shenzhou-8 unmanned spacecraft and
Shenzhou-9 manned spacecraft flights, China
mainly tested the docking techniques
between the spaceships and the target
orbiter Tiangong-1, she
said.
The Shenzhou-10 flight
will focus more on testing the
operations of personnel and material
transport between Earth and the
orbiter, the spokeswoman
said.
To comprehensively master
space docking technology is needed to
the building and operation of a
space station, Wu said. With the
previous two spacecraft missions, China
has grasped automated and manual space
docking techniques, she
said.
The Shenzhou-10 spacecraft
is scheduled to be launched at 5:38
p.m. Beijing Time Tuesday.
