Shenzhou 7

Shenzhou 7 will be China's third manned space flight. It will carry three Taikonauts (Chinese Astronauts) on a five day space mission and one of them will carry out the nation's first spacewalk mission in 2008. It maybe launched after the Chinese Olympic Games in October 2008 on a Long March-2F (CZ-2F) launch vehicle from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

Mission

The mission will feature the first three man crew of a Chinese spacecraft and the first Chinese spacewalk. New space suits for the spacewalk will be used. The suit is designed for a spacewalk mission of up to seven hours.

Only one astronaut will spacewalk and conduct some scientific experiments in the vacuum, while the two others will carefully monitor him from inside the spacecraft in order to ensure his safety. For this, a hand launched small monitoring satellite will be used. The spacewalking astronaut will perform tasks such as installing equipment and 'tightening screws'. Each move will be broadcast live.

Crew

As of January 2008, fourteen astronauts, including China's first three taikonauts, are training and competing for places on the nation's third manned space mission later 2008.

Yang Liwei, the nation's first taikonaut, and Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng, the second batch of taikonauts, are now training with 11 others, all hoping to be one of the three taikonauts aboard the Shenzhou 7.