China's third crewed space flight will take place in September 2008, immediately after the Beijing Olympic Games, the state press reported on Sunday. The mission will see the nation's first attempt at a spacewalk.
Shenzhou VII will carry three astronauts, said Song Zhengyu, a leading official at the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. "The selection process is going on now as they train," he told the Beijing News.
The flight will be launched from China's Jiuquan launch centre in the deserts of northwest China's Inner Mongolia.
The country became the third nation to place a man in space, following the former Soviet Union and the US, when Yang Liwei piloted the Shenzhou V on a short mission in October 2003.
Two years later, the Shenzhou VI carried two astronauts into space on a five-day mission.
Chinese space officials have previously said that the Shenzhou VII spacewalk will be followed by missions that include space dockings between crewed and uncrewed vehicles. The eventual goal of the Shenzhou series is to construct a 20-tonne space station, Song said.
Observers argue that China's human spaceflight programme has various purposes, from generating political prestige to promoting the development of high-tech industry.
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18:53 05 September 2008
