2008 Space walk



One Chinese astronaut will walk in space in 2008, expert says
March 5, 2007
http://english.people.com.cn/200703/05/eng20070305_354395.html


China will send three astronauts into space in 2008 on board Shenzhou
VII, but only one of them will perform spacewalk, the Beijing Times
reported on Monday.

Chinese scientists are working on the space suits for the astronaut,
which is the key part for spacewalk, the newspaper quoted official
sources as saying.

"The design of the space suits has been completed, but they still need
to be tested," Qi Faren, chief designer of China's first five Shenzhou
spaceships, and chief consultant for Shenzhou VI and VII, was quoted
as saying.

Qi is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference, which convenes its annual session
here along with one of the China's top legislature, the National
People's Congress,

China has announced that it will launch manned space shuttle Shenzhou
VII in 2008. Shenzhou VIII, Shenzhou IX and Shenzhou X are all being
planned and the intervals between each launch will become shorter.

The newspaper said the astronaut will just walk in outer space in 2008
and no experiments or maintenance activities will be conducted outside
the capsule.

Although Shenzhou VII is scheduled to be launched in 2008, when
Beijing hosts the Olympic Games, Qi said the launching of the
spaceship has nothing to do with the Olympics.

"This is a scientific project. Its ultimate goal is to ensure the
safety of astronauts and the success of experiments," Qi said. He also
said that the best season to launch the spacecraft is in spring or
autumn.

In response to questions on women astronauts, Qi said China has no
plans yet to put women astronauts into space though a group of women
airplane pilots have been chosen as would-be candidates for
astronauts.

China's first manned space flight took place in 2003, making it the
third nation to conduct independent manned space flight.

Last year, the second manned spaceship, Shenzhou VI, was launched and
completed a five-day flight with two astronauts carrying out
space-based experiments.

Source: Xinhua



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