China Eyes Space Walk In 2007

China hopes to conduct a space walk in 2007 and might recruit women into its next group of astronaut candidates, a senior space program official said Monday.

The Shenzhou 6 flight that ended early Monday completed the first stage of China's manned space development plan, which focused on development of space vehicles, said Tang Xianming, director of the China Space Engineering Office.

The next stage focuses on developing ways for astronauts to walk in space and the ability to rendezvous and dock with other spacecraft, Tang said at a news conference.

"Our estimate is that around 2007 we will be able to achieve extravehicular activity by our astronauts and they will walk in space," he said.

Tang said he also expected to see female Chinese astronauts "in the not-too-distant future."

"At present, we do not have women participants among our astronaut candidates," he said. "But according to our development program and plans for manned space engineering, for the next round of selections, we might consider having some female astronauts."

Back on the ground, astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng were "in good health" and "feeling good" after the Shenzhou 6 capsule touched down at 4:32 a.m. in the Inner Mongolia region, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said retrieval crews had reached the landing site and the two men were undergoing a medical checkup.

Fei and Nie blasted off Wednesday on China's second manned space mission. It came almost exactly two years after China's first manned space flight made this only the third country able to send a human into orbit on its own, after Russia and the United States.

State television showed scores of technicians monitoring the landing at computer screens at a Beijing control center. They didn't show any reaction when an announcer said the capsule had landed but broke into cheers after word came that the astronauts were safe.

Chinese leaders including Wu Bangguo, the No. 2 figure in the ruling Communist Party, were shown on television watching the landing from the control center.

Late Sunday, Xinhua said the mission had "accomplished the planned experiments and accumulated valuable technical data" for China's manned space program.

"We feel good, our work is going smoothly and our life is happy," Fei was quoted as saying Sunday evening before the craft began its re-entry maneuvers. "We will do our utmost to fulfill the mission."

"We're grateful for the deep love and concern by all Chinese people, the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan compatriots," Nie said.

Shenzhou 6 orbited the Earth more than 70 times and traveled more than 1.9 million miles, Xinhua said.

The mission was substantially longer and more complex than the 2003 flight, when astronaut Yang Liwei orbited for 21 1/2 hours before his capsule landed by parachute.

The manned space program is a costly prestige project for China's communist leaders. They hope to burnish the country's standing abroad and shore up their own support at home by stirring patriotic pride at a time of widespread frustration over corruption and a growing gap between the country's rich and poor.

Chinese leaders have defended the program's expense, saying it will help to drive economic and technological development.

The government says the manned space program has cost a total of US $2.3 billion — a fraction of the budget of its American counterpart.

The government didn't disclose the planned length of the flight in advance or details of the astronauts' mission.

The newspaper Beijing News said Nie and Fei would undergo 40 minutes of medical checkups after landing.

"After several days of flying in space, the astronauts may look wan and sallow, so medical staff will put makeup on them to make them look ruddy," the newspaper said.

The two men were to be taken by helicopter to a local airport to board a flight to Beijing, the report said.

Both will be in isolation for observation for 14 days after the mission, but family members will be allowed to visit, the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper said.

The mission dominated state media last week. In a break with the military-linked space program's usual secrecy, newspapers and television showed scenes of Fei and Nie working and sometimes playing in orbit.

Scenes of Fei turning somersaults and the astronauts setting bits of food floating in zero gravity.

CCTV put together a montage set to music of the astronauts' activities on Saturday — taking their blood pressure and reading books — along with photos they had taken of the vessel's solar panels.

The Shenzhou 6 is a modified version of Russia's Soyuz capsule.

China also bought Russian technology for spacesuits, life-support systems and other equipment. But space officials say all of the items launched into orbit were Chinese-made.