China is ready for its longest-ever manned space mission with a spacecraft carrying two astronauts set to lift off on Monday to dock with an experimental lab for a month-long stay under the Communist giant's ambitious plans to establish its own permanent space station by 2022.
Chinese astronauts Jing Haipeng, 50, and 37-year-old Chen Dong will be blasted into space aboard 'Shenzhou-11' (heavenly vessel) spacecraft at 7:30 am (5 am IST) from the Jiuquan Satellite launch Center near the Gobi Desert in northern China.
The mission will be carried out with a long March-2F carrier rocket, Wu Ping, Deputy Director of China's manned space engineering office said.
It will dock with orbiting space lab Tiangong-2 within two days and the astronauts will stay in the lab for 30 days, she was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.
China, which conducted its first manned space mission in 2003 that lasted 15 days, is putting in billions into its space programme in a bid to catch up with the US and Europe. It also plans to launch its maiden Mars mission in 2020 to match India and others.
China has said its space program is for peaceful purposes, but it has also tested anti-satellite missiles in addition to its civilian aims.
The Shenzhou-11 spaceship will return to Earth within a day after docking the two astronauts on Tiangong-2 space lab and separating from it, according to Wu.