China will send its first woman into space on Saturday when astronaut Liu Yan and two other crew members blast off on an upgraded Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan rocket launch site, in northwest China, at 6:37 p.m. local time (2:37 p.m. Moscow time), China's manned space program deputy director Wu Ping said.
The mission will be led by its commander, Tszin Haipen along with astronaut Liu Ban.
"The main aim of the program is a launch of the manned ship and a docking with the Tiangong-1 space module, once in manual mode and once in automatic," Wu said.
The rocket will deliver the crew to the orbiting Tiangong module where they will carry out scientific experiments. The crew will stay in orbit for ten days.
The crew will work in both their spaceship and the orbiting module, and sleep in two specially equipped sleeping compartments in the module.
China plans to build its own space station and laboratory in orbit by 2020. Only the Soviet Union and United States have previously sent women into space.
