Ceilidh

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

Thu Dec 23, 6:10 AM ET


BEIJING (Reuters) - China plans to launch its second manned space flight, a five-day mission with two astronauts aboard, in September next year, state media reported Thursday.


AFP  
Slideshow: China's Space Program

Fighter pilot Yang Liwei, who became China's first man in space in October 2003 when he circled the earth 14 times aboard the Shenzhou V spacecraft, was among a pool of 14 astronauts in training for the new mission, to be called Shenzhou VI.


"Shenzhou VI will be launched in September next year," the semi-official China News Service quoted Huang Chunping, director of the Shenzhou V project, as saying.


"All things being equal, I would prefer to let other astronauts go up on Shenzhou VI. That way China would have three astronauts who will have been into space," he said.


The news agency said the astronauts would perform experiments aboard the next flight, but it did not give specifics.


China is only the third country after the United States and Russia to launch people into space, and it has lofty space ambitions.


A third flight, Shenzhou VII, aims to have an astronaut perform a spacewalk. China also wants to build a space lab and a space station and eventually send astronauts to the moon.