CHINESE officials said today they may send the country's first woman into space this year after several women made it through the initial selection phase for its first manned space docking mission, Xinhua reported.
A team of astronauts is training to become part of the three-person team that China will send into space on the spacecraft Shenzhou-9 later this year.
The spacecraft will take its crew to the Tiangong-1 space module lab - launched in September last year - from which they will perform experiments.
Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of China's manned space program, told Xinhua that a decision on which astronauts would make the trip would not be made until the last minute.
Dozens of female astronauts have flown into space, including women from the US, South Korea, Japan, Canada, France and Russia.
China sent its first person into space in 2003 and has since conducted several manned missions, but has never included a woman, AFP reported.
China sees its space program as a symbol of its global stature, growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.
The current program aims to provide China with a space station in which a crew can live independently for several months, as at the old Russian Mir facility or the International Space Station.
Read more at Xinhua.
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