BEIJING (AP) - China is
aiming for its third
manned flight next year with two astronauts making space walks, a state-run
newspaper reported Monday.
The Beijing Morning Post
quoted Huang Chunping, chief consultant for China's manned launching vehicle
system, as saying the Shenzhou
7 spacecraft would be ready this year.
However, work was still
being done on the suit the astronauts would wear on the space walk [image].
"The main reason for the
delay is that we wanted to be able to carry out the space walk completely
dependent on our self-ability,'' Huang said.
Three astronauts will go
into space and two of them are expected to make space walks, Huang was quoted
as saying. He said no decision had been made on how long the walks would be.
Huang said the timing of
the flight would depend on progress on finishing the space suit, and would not
be timed for the Summer Olympics, which start in August 2008 in Beijing.
China's first
manned space launch in 2003 made it only the third country to send a human
into orbit on its own, after the former Soviet Union and the United States.
A second
space flight carrying two astronauts took place in October
2005.
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