Beijing, Jun 18 (IANS): The successful launch of China's first manned spacecraft indicates that the country's economic infrastructure and technology have made great progress, a Chinese daily said Monday.

China was ready to explore "aerospace economy" that boasts of an unusually wide industry range, containing almost every industry from energy, steel, new materials, electronics, machinery, and communications to space clothing and space food, the Economic Information Daily reported.

The space clothing and space food industries involve textiles, garment processing, agricultural products and food processing, it said.

The achievements from space technology development can be widely applied to other sectors of the economy, and thereby trigger innovation in such sectors, the daily said.

China's first manned spacecraft Shenzhou-9, carrying the first Chinese woman astronaut with two male colleagues, Monday successfully docked with the Tiangong-1 space module.

Shenzhou-9, atop the Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre June 16.

The first Chinese woman in space, 33-year-old Liu Yang, is joined by commanding officer Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang.