BEIJING (AP) -- China hopes to
launch its second manned space mission in October, two years after its first
flight, a state newspaper reported Friday.
Earlier
reports said the government planned to launch a two-man crew into orbit in
September or October on a five- to six-day flight.
The
Shenzhou VI capsule will ''preferably be launched in
early October,'' Sun Weigang, director of the Space
Department of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., said in the
report in the China Daily newspaper.
The
report didn't give any other details.
In
October 2003, China joined
the United States and Russia as the
only countries to launch humans into space.
Col.
Yang Liwei, a former fighter pilot, orbited the Earth
for 21 1/2 hours aboard the Shenzhou V capsule before
landing in China's
northern grasslands.
The
14 candidates for the next flight--all former fighter pilots--have "stepped up
training in weightless conditions and learned to repair faults and deal with
other emergencies in space,'' the China Daily said.
The
military-linked manned space program is a major prestige project for the
communist government but still operates largely in secret.
Yang's
name wasn't announced until shortly before his flight; the identities of
candidates for the next flight haven't been released.
The
Chinese program's technology is based on Russia's Soyuz space capsule but
with extensive modifications.
In
April, the government announced plans to build a new campus for the Shanghai space center
that built part of Yang's capsule, indicating a longer-term commitment to
manned spaceflight.
Chinese
officials say they plan to land an unmanned probe on the moon by 2010 and operate
a space station.
Beijing doesn't
participate in the U.S.-led International Space Station.
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