China to Launch Next Manned Spacecraft in '05

[Lionel]

China will launch its next manned spacecraft next year and it will carry more than one astronaut, a newspaper said Friday, nearly three months after the nation's first manned space shot was completed successfully.China also congratulated the United States on Friday for successfully landing an unmanned Mars probe and, following reports of U.S. plans to create a moon base and a human Mars trip, expressed hope that space exploration ``will continuously achieve new progress."In October, Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei became a national hero when he returned from a one-day orbital mission in Shenzhou 5. It made China the third country in the world to successfully accomplish manned spaceflight. On the same day, the country announced plans for a space station.On Friday the Chengdu Evening News in western China's Sichuan province said the next spacecraft, Shenzhou 6, would carry more than one person and would stay more than one day in space.The online edition of People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's official newspaper, picked up the Chengdu story, which cited Huang Chunping, general director of Shenzhou 5.

The newspaper covers the space program closely because a key aerospace company is located in Chengdu, and one of China's rocket-launching bases is nearby."The successful launch of Shenzhou 5 not only boosted national pride but injected confidence into the research of the next spacecraft. Shenzhou 6 will carry more than one astronaut and stay more than one day in space," People's Daily said, citing Huang.

View: Full Article | Source: space.com