Posted: Sat, Jun 16, 2012, 9:12 AM ET (1312 GMT)
A Long March rocket successfully launched Saturday a spacecraft carrying three astronauts, including China's first female astronaut, on a mission to dock with an experimental space lab module. The Long March 2F rocket lifted off at 6:37 am EDT (1037 GMT, 6:37 pm Beijing time) Saturday and placed the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft into orbit about nine minutes later. The spacecraft is carrying a three person crew of Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang, and China's first woman in space, Liu Yang. Shenzhou 9 will dock in a few days with the Tiangong-1 module launched last year on a mission expected to last about two weeks.
