China launches manned spacecraft to dock with space lab

By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING (AA) – China launched Monday morning a manned spacecraft with two astronauts on board that is due to dock with orbiting space lab.

State news agency Xinhua reported that the country’s manned space program declared the launch of the Shenzhou-11 -- which later arrived at the designated orbit -- a success.

It was blasted from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert at 7.30 a.m. (2330GMT Sunday) and is due to dock within two days with the Tiangong-2 space lab -- launched last month -- where the astronauts will stay for 30 days.

President Xi Jinping, who is currently on a visit to India, sent a message of congratulations saying the mission marks the first time that Chinese astronauts will remain in orbit for medium term.

According to Xinhua, he also encouraged the staff of the mission to "constantly break new ground for the manned space program, so that Chinese people will take bigger steps and march further in space probe, to make new contribution to the building of China into a space power."

On Sunday, the deputy director of the manned space program, Wu Ping, told a press conference that the mission’s objectives include carrying out experiments in the space science and aerospace medical fields, transporting personnel and materials between Earth and Tiangong-2, and assessing technologies related to rendezvous maneuvers, docking and return.

Other capabilities that will be examined include the complex's ability to support astronauts' life, work and health as well as astronauts' abilities to conduct flight missions.

The Tiangong-2 was China’s second spacelab blasted into space as part of the country’s efforts to develop its space and technology programs.

In August, the country launched the world’s first quantum satellite -- Quantum Experiments at Space Scale, or QUESS -- designed to establish "hack-proof" communications.

Authorities have expressed expectations that by 2020, the construction of the country’s first orbiting space station should be completed.