BEIJING - China may continue to send female astronauts into space in future space missions, an official responsible for selecting and training Chinese astronauts said Friday.

Chen Shanguang, director of the Chinese Astronaut Research and Training Center, told a post-mission press conference that "the specific plan will be decided after research".

China's first woman astronaut, Liu Yang, together with veteran astronaut Jing Haipeng and crewmate Liu Wang, safely returned to the Earth Friday morning after they completed the manual space docking of Shenzhou IX?spacecraft and the Tiangong-1 space lab module.

"Sending a woman into space reflects the increasing status and greater roles of our female compatriots in the society and our country," Chen said.