China to invest 19b yuan in space docking missions

BEIJING - China has planned about 19 billion yuan ($3 billion) in budget for the country's space rendezvous and docking missions, a spokeswoman of China's manned space program said Sunday.

Wu Ping, a spokeswoman for China's manned space program, told a news conference that the budget will cover the ongoing Shenzhou-IX spacecraft manned space docking mission, the previous missions conducted by Shenzhou-VII, Shenzhou-VIII spaceships, and the mission to be carried out by the Shenzhou-X spaceship next year.

Since starting the manned space missions in 1992, Wu said, the country has spent another 20 billion yuan in investment in manned space missions carried out by Shenzhou-VI and previous spaceships.