China has launched a satellite to complete the country's first data relay satellite network that has assisted in space docking missions. China successfully launched the Tianlian I-03 satellite from a launch centre in Sichuan province. Xinhua news agency reported that Tianlian I-03 is the third in a series of satellites and marks the completion of the country's first data relay satellite network. The satellite was launched on a Long March-3C carrier rocket at 11:43 pm last night (Beijing Time). Together the three satellites that are in orbit now complete the system following validation and system coordination procedures. The third satellite is expected to improve the network's coverage in providing measurement and control services for China's manned spacecraft and planned space labs and stations.

China will launch its third spacecraft to the moon next year as part of its lunar exploration mission. 
Chief scientist of China's lunar exploration programme Ouyang Ziyuan said today that the Chang'e 3, named after the Chinese goddess of the moon, includes a lander and rover that will jointly carry out exploration activities for the first time in world history.

A Chinese space capsule carrying three crew members, has returned to Earth following a 13-day mission. The astronauts, including China's first woman in space, carried out a successful manual docking with the Tiangong-1 laboratory module earlier in the week. The delicate procedure, which involved bringing together two orbiting vessels traveling at thousands of miles an hour, was mastered by the USSR and US space teams in the 1960s. The crew also carried out automatic docking of the two crafts during their mission.

The three astronauts returned to the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft yesterday and performed a manual separation from the space laboratory. They touched down in Inner Mongolia's Siziwang county, at at 10:05 local time today with the capsule deploying a parachute to slow its approach. Images of the capsule landing were shown live on State television.

Premier Wen Jiabao hailed the mission as a complete success. Mr. Wen said this is another outstanding contribution by the Chinese people to humanity's efforts to explore and use space.

China, which sent three astronauts into orbit a week ago, are to conduct the nation's first manual space docking on Sunday- a key step to building a space station. In a brief dispatch, the official Xinhua news agency on Saturday quoted an unnamed spokesman for China's manned space programme as saying that the highly complex manoeuvre would take place at noon the following day.

China's current space mission was kicked off last Saturday when the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft took off carrying China's first female astronaut. Two days later, it came together with the Tiangong-1 module already in orbit around Earth. China has carried out automatic dockings three times already, but the main goal of the current manned mission is to complete the first manual docking , which requires great accuracy from astronauts. 

China aims to complete construction of a space station by 2020, a goal that requires it to perfect docking technology --a delicate manoeuvre that the Russians and Americans successfully completed in the 1960s.

China today launched its latest manned space mission, whose crew includes its first female astronaut, Liu Yang. The Shenzhou-9 capsule rode to orbit atop a Long March rocket from the Jiuquan spaceport on the edge of the Gobi desert at 6.15 p.m. local time. Liu and her two male colleagues are heading to the Tiangong space lab. They will spend over a week living and working on the 335km-high vessel, testing new systems and conducting a number of scientific experiments.

Thirty-three-year-old Liu Yang, also a fighter pilot, has on the other hand emerged as China's first woman astronaut after just two years of training. Her role in the mission will be to run the medical experiments in orbit.

SpaceX has confirmed its plans to launch a rocket and capsule on May 7 in a historic first flight of a private spaceship to the International Space Station. SpaceX said its unmanned Dragon capsule is due to ride on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. SpaceX aims to carry out a fly-by of the ISS and a berthing operation in which the reusable spacecraft, the Dragon, will approach the ISS as the crew aboard the orbiting outpost uses a robotic arm to dock it.

The government ruled out any demoralization of the ISRO scientific community following the recent action against four of its former scientists. The action has in no way affected the space programme. Giving this information in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Minister of State in PMO, V. Narayanasamy said there is no proposal at present to revoke the action taken by the government on the four former ISRO scientists