China counting down to next men in space (Agencies) Updated: 2005-07-05 07:14 China has begun training six pilots for
spaceflight, two of whom will enter orbit on September's Shenzhou VI mission,
domestic media said on Monday, in the next step in the country's lofty space
ambitions.
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A spacesuit sits on display at a space exhibition in Urumqi,
capital of Northwest China's Uyguir Autonomous Region on April 24, 2005.
[newsphoto] | The astronaut candidates were
training in teams and the pair that showed the best teamwork would be the next
Chinese in space, Huang Chunping, the man who pushed the launch button for
China's first manned spaceflight in 2003, was quoted as saying by the Web site
Chinanews.com.
"China should accelerate its space development, such as by launching manned
spaceflights every year," Huang said.
China became the third nation to successfully send a man into space in
October 2003, when astronaut Yang Liwei orbited the Earth 14 times on the
Shenzhou V spacecraft.
The six candidates for Shenzhou VI were chosen from a pool of 14 since
December.
China would be ready to set up its own orbiting space station in 2010, Huang
was quoted as telling Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po newspaper.
The country also aims to have an astronaut perform a spacewalk during the
planned Shenzhou VII mission and eventually put men on the moon.
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