China has now completed four successful flights of its Shenzhou capsule, based on Russia's Soyuz model.
Assuming the venture goes well, two manned missions (Shenzhou 9 and 10) should follow in 2012.
Shenzhou-9 is already connected to Tiangong-1 as of Monday, but that was done automatically.
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Among the crew of Shenzhou-9 was Liu Yang, the first Chinese woman in space.
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And do expect China to fly more and more European experiments on Shenzhou and Tiangong missions.
The Shenzhou-9 mission will launch sometime in the middle of June and carry a three-person crew.
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After the second docking was completed, Shenzhou-8 separated again from Tiangong-1 and then returned to Earth.
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Yesterday, Chinese taikonauts aboard the Shenzhou-9 completed a manual docking with orbiting space laboratory Tiangong-1.
Earlier this afternoon, the Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou-8 successfully docked with the Chinese space laboratory Tiangong-1.
The unmanned Shenzhou-8 spacecraft completed a successful docking mission with the spacelab in November.
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The Long March rocket carrying the Shenzhou VI lifted off at 9 AM sharp.
The last, Shenzhou 4, touched-down in Inner Mongolia on 5 January after a 162-hour mission.
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Assuming the Shenzhou 8 venture goes well, two manned missions (Shenzhou 9 and 10) should follow in 2012.
The two spacecraft will remain docked for a period of about six days, after which Shenzhou-9 will undock.
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In the wake of Shenzhou 5's successful mission, the Chinese say they have grand plans for the future.
Shenzhou-9 and its rocket, the Long March-2F, have been moved to the launch platform of Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
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Earlier this month, the Shenzhou-8 successfully docked with the Chinese space laboratory Tiangong-1.
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The docking itself was completed by taikonaut Liu Wang, about an hour and a half after Shenzhou-9 undocked from Tiangong-1.
Analysts believe the Shenzhou spacecraft that China is developing is an enlarged copy of the Soviet-era workhorse - the Soyuz.
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Then, in a few weeks' time, China will launch another unmanned spacecraft, Shenzhou 8, and try to link the pair together.
Some of its plans, such as follow-up piloted missions on further Shenzhou craft over the next year, look likely to materialise.
While the Shenzhou V stayed aloft for only 21 hours, the Shenzhou VI will orbit the Earth for five to seven days.
Mr. DEAN CHENG (CNA Corporation): The Shenzhou craft is longer, it's wider, it has two sets of solar panels rather than one.
After the Shenzhou 4 flight, Chinese media said the capsule carried all the equipment necessary for manned flight and tested life-support equipment.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | China manned space mission nears
Subsequent Shenzhou missions are expected to focus on building a space station.
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Shenzhou-9 follows on from the unmanned Shenzhou-8 venture last year that tested the technologies required to join a capsule to the Tiangong lab.
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Mr Jing, 46, is making his second spaceflight after participating in the Shenzhou-7 outing in 2008 - the mission that included China's first spacewalk.
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Later this week, the astronauts will undock and redock the Shenzhou 9 from the space module, to verify their their systems are still functional.
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The Shenzhou-9 mission so far has performed admirably, surpassing current expectations.
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This ultimately built the Shenzhou series of spacecraft and put them on top of a booster modified from one of China's unmanned Long March satellite-launching rockets.
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