Post date: Jun 16, 2012 11:20:57 AM
China-Shenzhou-9/Astronauts Entering -- Three Chinese astronauts of Shenzhou-9 enter spaceship
CCTV BEIJING - Three Chinese astronauts got on board spacecraft Shenzhou-9 at 16:08 Saturday.
The astronauts arrived at the launching pad at 16:00 after a see-off ceremony held in Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
The last preparations for launching the spacecraft, including a final examination of the launch system, the status of the spacecraft and the astronauts are now orderly proceeding in the spaceship and at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center in Beijing.
The spacecraft, which is expected to fulfill the country's first manned space docking mission, is set to blast off at 18:37 (10:37 GMT) Saturday, carried by a Long March-2F carrier rocket, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gobi Desert.
All the three crew members were former pilots of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
China launched its first unmanned space lab module Tiangong-1 on Sept. 29, 2011. The unmanned spaceship Shenzhou-8 successfully docked with Tiangong-1 in November last year.
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