China has postponed the launch of the Shenzhou VII rocket and the country's first space walk mission by six months, into 2008, state media said on Saturday.
"There is nothing wrong. We just need more time to prepare for the mission," Huang Chunping, a senior consultant to China's space programme, told the official Xinhua news agency.
China announced in 2005 that the launch of the Shenzhou VII, the country's third crewed mission, would take place in 2007 and would include a space walk. But Huang, the chief consultant for China's crewed launching vehicle system, explained that Shenzhou VII was a complicated program that needed careful tests and trials. More specifically, he said the timetable now depends on when researchers can tackle the key problem of the spacesuit.
China's most recent spaceflight took place in October 2005 when the Shenzhou VI put two astronauts into orbit on a five-day flight that captivated the nation.
China is the third country after the former Soviet Union and the US to put people into space. It has already announced that it is developing satellites to explore the Moon – one lunar probe is expected to launch by 2007 and another could land on the Moon by 2012.
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20:00 03 July 2008
