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China plans to put three men in space by 2007
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-03 14:00 China plans to put three men
into space within the next two years as it looks ahead to an orbiting space
station and a mission to the moon.
Chinese astronauts Fei Junlong
(L) and Nie Haisheng wave flowers beside the re-entry capsule of China's
second manned spacecraft Shenzhou-6 at its landing site in Siziwang Banner
(County), north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, early October
17, 2005. [Reuters] |
China last month
successfully completed its second manned space mission aboard the Shenzhou VI,
and is now developing a series of new craft up to the Shenzhou X, two Beijing
newspapers said.
The Shenzhou VII would carry three people and be launched within the next two
years, the Beijing Morning Post said.
But the Shenzhou VIII and IX would only carry equipment for the planned
orbiting space station, the newspaper said, quoting chief rocket designer Liu
Zhusheng.
Shenzhou X would carry the people who will work in the space station, Liu
told the newspaper, without giving a timeframe for its launch.
But he said once the space station project got under way, Shenzhou VIII, VI
and X could be launched within a month of each other.
"Once one part has gone up, we need to immediately send up the next bit to
connect it, so we'll carry out a series of quick launches in succession," Zhu
said.
China is also designing a rocket that can carry a payload of 25 tonnes into
space, up from a present limit of eight tonnes, the Beijing News said, though it
would unlikely be ready for another six-and-a-half years.
Another objective is to put a man on the moon, but that plan could be
complicated due to China's current inability to land and then recover a craft
from the surface, the report said.
"Though we have already achieved a high level of successful technology,
success does not necessarily mean the technology is mature," the newspaper
quoted another rocket designer, Yang Hong, as saying.
China put its first man in space aboard Shenzhou V in October 2003, giving
China membership in the exclusive club of countries that have put a man into
space.
The former Soviet Union and the United States first sent men into orbit in
1961.
China has run its ambitious space programme on a relative shoestring. State
media has put the cost of developing the whole Shenzhou programme at about $2.3
billion, a fraction of the $16 billion budget of NASA, the US space agency, for
2005 alone.
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