The Chinese are set to begin the nation's fourth manned space mission, scheduled for early Saturday evening. The spacecraft in question will carry three astronauts, including the first ever Chinese woman astronaut, to the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) Space Lab (a temporary space station) orbiting Earth.
The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft is scheduled to take off at 6:37 pm (10:37 GMT/ 11:37 BST), from a location in the Gobi Desert, in the nation's northwest.
The mission is China's first attempt at manually docking with the Tiangong module, which was launched last September as part of the government's exploratory programme for a fully functional space lab. The project will last for 10 days, during which the crew will conduct a number of experiments including space docking - a technically demanding procedure that will see the Shenzhou-9 manually guided, at orbiting speeds, to dock with the Tiangong module, which is now 213m above the Earth.
The Chinese government is hoping the successful completion of this mission will help the country set up a national space station in 2020.
Meanwhile, Liu Yang, a 33-year-old fighter pilot, is set to make history as the first Chinese woman to travel to space. Her responsibilities during the mission are to perform aerospace medical experiments and assorted space tests.
According to medical experts responsible for crew selection, female astronauts are required to meet physical and mental criteria men are subject to, China Daily reported. In addition, the report also said female candidates are required to be married and, preferably, mothers, since the radiation astronauts are exposed to could "harm their fertility".
"When I was a pilot I flew in the sky; now as an astronaut, I'm going into space. It's higher and it's farther," Yang said. "I have a lot of tasks to fulfil, but besides these tasks I want to feel the unique environment in space and admire the views. I want to explore a beautiful Earth, a beautiful home," she added.
Speaking to the official Xinhua news agency, Yang also said, "I want to record all my feelings and my work, to share with my friends, and my comrades and my future colleagues." The intrepid astronaut added she "yearns to experience the wondrous, weightless environment of space, see the Earth and gaze upon the motherland".
"Thank you for the confidence put in my by the motherland and the people, for giving me this chance to represent China's millions of women by going into space," Yang later told reporters at the Jiuquan launch centre.
Finally, China is also in the process of deploying an indigenous satellite-navigation system, called BeiDou; the name translates to "compass" from the original Chinese.
Experts believe that while China is still behind the USA and Russia in terms of space exploration, this mission, if completed according to plan, could go a long way in proving the East Asian country's status as a rising power in the field.
