A 42-year-old fighter pilot has been chosen to become the first Chinese person to walk in space, with the historic mission set to launch next Thursday, the government said yesterday.
Zhai Zhigang (翟志剛), a colonel in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and two other astronauts will be on board the Shenzhou VII for China’s third manned space mission when it blasts off for a 68-hour flight, the nation’s Cabinet said.
Zhai will then undertake a 40-minute maneuver outside the spacecraft on either Friday or Saturday afternoon next week, according to the announcement on the Web site of the State Council.
He will release a small satellite which will broadcast video images of his walk outside the craft, it said.
RUSSIAN SUIT
His pressurized spacesuit, which cost up to 100 million yuan (US$15 million), is largely based on Russian designs and will include two lifelines that will supply oxygen and communications, the announcement said.
The Shenzhou VII is scheduled to launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the desert of northwest China’s Gansu Province next Thursday evening, the Cabinet said.
The return capsule is scheduled to return to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia next Sunday.
Riding with him in the spacecraft will be Liu Boming (劉伯明) and Jing Haipeng (景海鵬景海鵬), both also 42 and PLA fighter pilots, according to the announcement.
PARTY MEMBERS
All three taikonauts are longtime members of the Chinese Communist Party. They formed the back-up team for the June 2005, Shenzhou VI space mission, which carried two astronauts on a five-day flight.
Zhai, married with one son, just missed out on being the first Chinese person to go into space in 2003.
China became the third nation to put a man in space five years ago when Yang Liwei (楊利偉) orbited the earth in a solo mission.
Zhai, who moved over from the PLA’s airforce to the space program in 1998, was on a shortlist of three for that mission.
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