Chinese Shenzhou-10 Launches on 15 Day Mission

The Chinese manned spacecraft Shenzhou-10 launched early this morning at 5:38 a.m. ET from the the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on a 15 day mission.

The three astronauts, Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping will perform experiments and go through two docking tests with the orbiting Chinese space lab module Tiangong-1, one automatic and the other manual.

Wang, is the second female astronaut in China’s manned space mission and the first one born in the 1980s according to the Xinhua news agency.