Shenzhou X spacecraft gets set to blast off on two-week trip

Three Chinese astronauts will blast off in the Shenzhou X spacecraft this month for a two-week mission to make final preparations for the construction of a space laboratory next year.

China Central Television reported yesterday that the spacecraft, mounted on top of a Long March 2F rocket, had been wheeled to a launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Inner Mongolia, with the mission scheduled for the middle of this month.

The crew will dock the Shenzhou X with the Tiangong I space module and live there for more than a week, testing equipment and technology crucial to space station construction.

The entire mission will last about 15 days, or two days longer than the maiden flight to Tiangong I last year.

If the mission is a success, China will press ahead with the construction of a two-module space laboratory next year that could increase the amount of time that astronauts can stay in space from days to weeks.

The mainland space authorities said the crew had been chosen but, in keeping with tradition, their identities would not be disclosed until the last minute.