Liu Yang becomes the first Chinese female astronaut to go to space while traveling on the Shenzhou 9 capsule. NBC's Ed Flanagan reports.

By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

BEIJING -- China's first woman in space, Liu Yang, will be conducting space medical experiments on a 10-day mission that started Saturday, but experts are deeply interested in the mechanics of the mission -- namely the manual space docking the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft will attempt with the Tiangong-1 module.

Launched last September, the Tiangong-1 is Chinas first space laboratory module and a key cog in Beijings larger ambitions of establishing a space station by 2020. From this outpost, Chinese scientists over the next few years will be able to test out new equipment and experiment with future space station capabilities.

But first Chinese astronauts need to prove they can actually dock with it.

Last year, China successfully got its unmanned Shenzhou-8 spacecraft to remotely link up with the Tiangong-1 module, but this will be the first time Chinese astronauts will attempt to manually guide a spacecraft into docking.

"Some people describe the manual docking as threading a needle from 100 meters away, so you can see how difficult and precise the procedure would be said astronaut Jing Haipeng, who with 14 years of experience in Chinas space program, will be responsible for this critical aspect of the mission.

"The manual space rendezvous ... is a huge test for astronauts' ability to judge spatial position, eye-hand coordination and psychological abilities," he added.

According to NBC News space analyst, James Oberg, the sooner Chinas astronauts master how to linkup with the Tiangong-1, the faster the country will be able to realize its long-term vision.

The Tiangong-1 is not just a docking target ... this is a full-fledged, live support module that can also can be used as a living space if the Chinese decide to move beyond low-Earth out to the moon or deep space said Oberg. The Tiangong-1 is exactly the kind of module for long term, deep space missions.

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China space flight a test of docking precision