China will launch the manned spacecraft Shenzhou VII next year
and its comprehensive whole-craft test has started with numerous
major breakthroughs having made for its new-generation carrier
rockets, according to Ma Xingrui, deputy chief of the Chang'e-1
lunar orbiting project and vice-president of the China Aerospace
Science Group.
China is set to launch the Shenzhou VII spacecraft in 2008 and,
by then, Chinese astronauts will, for the first time, conduct
outer-cabin spacewalk, Ma said, adding that knotty problems
relating to air brake and other key technologies have overcome, and
the whole craft has undergone a comprehensive, whole-craft test
phase, and that the general assembly of the rocket which is to
carry Shenzhou VII spacecraft in the vast space is expected to be
completed by late December.
(People's Daily, December 4, 2007)