New manned mission big step for the nation

A Long March-2F carrier rocket carrying the Shenzhou XI manned spacecraft blasted off from the launch pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China's Gansu province, at 7:30 am on Monday, heralding the start of China's sixth manned space mission.

Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong, the two astronauts charged with carrying out the mission, are to stay in the Tiangong II space laboratory for 30 days, testing rendezvous and docking technologies, verifying the life support capability of the docked spacecraft and lab, and conducting scientific research and engineering experiments.

In the past 18 years since 1999, 11 Shenzhou spacecraft have been successfully launched into space, and the missions have developed from unmanned ones to the manned ones, with each one making new and significant progress.