Women suiting up as astronauts
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-03-12 23:46

Hu Shixiang, deputy chief commander of China's Manned Space Programme, said the selection will cover the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao and not be confined to the ranks of women pilots.

"Our selection of women astronauts will not merely be a symbolic, image project," referring to appeals by a woman group for the inclusion of women to prove sex equality, said Hu.

As crew members, women astronauts may conduct scientific experiments aboard the ship, he said.

The first group of women astronauts will undertake three to four years of physical and space flight training, the official said, and train in knowledge and expertise for space-based scientific experiments.

Chinese women astronauts then will travel to space aboard home-built spacecraft when the time is right, Hu explained, giving no specific schedule.

He said a meticulous nature is needed for astronauts, while experience and test results, both physical and mental, will be crucial for research. China hopes its exploration will aid humankind to have better understanding of space.

Hu acknowledged that China's first group of astronauts, all male, were selected from the air force of the People's Liberation Army, including Yang Liwei, who became China's first astronaut orbiting the earth in October 2003 aboard a home-built spaceship.

A senior woman official with the Beijing-based Space Medical Engineering Institute, who was in charge of training astronauts, said spaceship designers will have to make minor changes to the facilities inside the ship so as to help accommodate women astronauts.

China joined Russia and the United States in the elite club of manned spaceflight last October as the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft orbited the Earth 14 times and returned safely.

China is manufacturing Shenzhou-6, a spacecraft for more than one astronaut, planning Shenzhou-7 and conducting feasibility studies on future space docking and the setting-up of a permanent laboratory in orbit.

"The astronauts are going to stay in orbit for more than five days and will meet harsher challenges to their stamina, survival capability and psychological quality," said Hu Shixiang, deputy commander-in-chief of China's manned space programme.

He disclosed Chinese scientists and engineers are studying all the problems that occurred during the previous launching of the Shenzhou spacecraft series, in a hope to ensure a more secure operation of Shenzhou-6.

Space could be an ideal place for manufacturing industrial materials and pharmaceuticals that are difficult to be produced on the Earth. "A future space docking and the establishment of a space lab will make it possible for us to explore space resources," he said.

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