Beijing: China announced today that in the early hours of Saturday it will send the Shenzhou-13 mission into the cosmos with a woman among the three crew members, to continue the construction of its space station, Radio Habana Cuba reports.
According to Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the Manned Space Flight Agency, the spacecraft will depart from the center of Jiuquan (northwest) and after entering orbit, it will automatically dock with the central module of Tianhe station.
The astronauts will remain there for the next six months and the stay will be longer than that of the predecessor team, which was at the facility from June to September last.
Among their tasks they will have two or three extravehicular activities, the location of devices for mechanical arms, as well as the development of various experiments and applications of science and technology.
China envisages a total of 10 manned missions to train in the assembly and construction in orbit of complex and large spacecraft, as well as in the performance of long-duration flights near the Earth and large-scale tests.
Its station will operate in low Earth orbit at an altitude of between 340 and 450 kilometers, while its useful life is designed for 10 years.
However, experts believe that it will be able to last more than 15 years with proper maintenance and repairs.