Though Shenzhou 6 will be capable of flying for up to seven days, Wang said the next mission would probably be "at least 24 hours," Xinhuanet said.
Wang's comments, made Tuesday as space officials traveled to Hong Kong and Macau, came three weeks after astronaut Yang Liwei became China's first man in space. Yang rode Shenzhou 5 into orbit on Oct. 15 and returned a day later after 21 hours.
"The scientists are busily involved in research to create an environment within the spaceship to accommodate more than one astronaut," Xinhuanet said, summarizing Wang's comments.
The government did not identify the "taikonauts" who would travel on the second mission. However, Yang's two alternates, Zhai Zhigang and Nie Haisheng, probably would be considered favorites. They have been included in many of the celebrations for Yang in recent days.
Taikonaut (TYE'-koh-nawt) is an English nickname based on the Chinese word for space, "taikong."
In Hong Kong on Tuesday, Chinese aerospace officials said they planned to launch a space station within 10 years. They had announced plans for such a station on the day Yang returned but had offered no timetable until this week.
And on Monday, China sent up an experimental satellite from the same pad where Shenzhou 5 went up _ a device the government said would be used mostly for scientific research and mapping. The recoverable satellite will orbit for 18 days and is "technically much more advanced than the previous ones," the government said.
The spate of fresh activities, plans and details -- released as Yang and other space officials toured Macau and Hong Kong in a patriotism-drenched victory lap -- suggest China's confidence in its space program has been solidified by last month's successful trip.
The military-linked manned space program has been extremely secretive for years.
Still, the trappings of communist caution remain. On Wednesday night, the government issued an odd dispatch solely to discredit a report in a western China newspaper, which said last week that Shenzhou 6 would send three astronauts on a seven-day mission.
The error happened after an official told the newspaper that Shenzhou 6 would have the capacity to carry three astronauts and fly for a week, then was "mistakenly quoted," Xinhua said.
On Tuesday, Wang said China had no plans in place for a human moon landing and said the nation would work at its own pace _ in contrast to the frenzied race to space between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1960s.
"It won't be like the space feud between America and the Soviet Union," Wang said.
Yang and the entourage arrived in Macau on Wednesday, and Xinhua ran their arrival as an urgent on its international service, calling Yang "a hero of the Chinese nation."
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