Beijing, June 15 (IANS) China will send its first woman astronaut into space when it launches its fourth manned spacecraft Saturday evening, Xinhua reported.

The space mission's major task is to conduct a manual docking between the spacecraft and the orbiting space lab module Tiangong-1 for the first time in addition to another automatic docking, said Wu Ping, spokeswoman for China's manned space programme at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre.

Three astronauts -- two male and one female -- will be onboard the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft to fulfil the first manual space docking test. The two male astronauts are Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang while Liu Yang is the female astronaut, Wu added.

The first Chinese female astronaut Liu Yang, 33, is an air force major. She is a veteran pilot with 1,680 hours of flying experience and was deputy head of a flight unit of the Chinese Air Force before being recruited May 2010 into China's second batch of prospective astronauts.

After two years of training that has shored up her astronautic skills and adaptability to the space environment, Liu excelled in testing and was selected in March this year as a candidate to crew the Shenzhou-9,