China's latest manned space mission to launch June 11

[bananas]

Source: Reuters

China will launch its next manned space flight on Tuesday, carrying three astronauts on a 15-day mission to an experimental space lab, the National Space Administration said, in the latest step towards the development of a space station.

The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft will launch from a remote site in the Gobi desert in China's far west at 5:38 p.m. (0938 GMT), Wu Ping, spokeswoman for China's manned space program, told a televised briefing on Monday.

Once in orbit, the craft will dock with the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1, a trial space laboratory module, and the two male and one female astronauts will carry out various experiments and test the module's systems.

They will also give a lecture to students back on earth, Wu said.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/10/us-china-space-idUSBRE95205220130610

[bananas]

1. 5:38 a.m. EDT, or 2:38 a.m. PDT

http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/10/18884702-china-announces-crew-for-tuesday-space-launch?lite

[Gore1FL]

2. It's odd that we left them out of the ISS.

On the bright side, maybe they'll advance enough to get the U.S. nervous enough to actually invest in NASA.

[bananas]

3. Live coverage

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32119