China counts down to space launch

JIUQUAN, China (AP) -- China started counting down Thursday to an evening rocket launch that will put a three-man crew into space where one of them will make the country's first spacewalk.

"Shenzhou 7 to launch today," read the headline on the front page of the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party.

The mission, expected to last about three days, is China's most challenging since it launched a person into space in 2003. The spacewalk, known formally as an extravehicular activity or EVA, is expected to help China develop the technology for docking two orbiters to create China's first space station in the future.

The launch window for the mission at the Jiuquan launch site in northwestern China had been set at between 9:07 p.m. and 10:27 p.m. (1307 and 1427 GMT) on Thursday.

Some reports said the spacewalk would come on Friday afternoon, one day after the launch, but the program's space application system director-general and chief designer was quoted as saying it would come on Saturday.

The two astronauts who don spacesuits for the maneuver will be "supported by Russian experts throughout the mission," said space program spokesman Wang Zhaoyao told reporters Wednesday at Jiuquan. Only one will actually leave the module to retrieve scientific experiments placed outside.

China's secretive military-backed space program has relied overwhelmingly on domestic technology and know-how, and cooperation with Russia has been highly limited. One of the astronauts will wear China's homemade Feitian suit, while the other will wear a Russian-made suit.

Some Chinese astronauts, sometimes called "taikonauts" for the Chinese word for space, are believed to have trained in Russia early on, but all now undergo preparations in facilities in China.

However, Wang said Russian support for the latest mission could translate into a broader relationship in the future.

"The successful cooperation on the Shenzhou 7 manned mission will create favorable conditions for future cooperation between our two countries," Wang said, without giving details.

Fighter pilot Zhai Zhigang, 42, an unsuccessful candidate for the previous two manned missions, has been touted by the official Xinhua News Agency as the leading astronaut to carry out the spacewalk, expected to last about 40 minutes. See a timeline of China's space program »

Zhai, accompanied by comrades Jing Haipeng and Liu Boming -- all three of them 42-year-old fighter pilots -- were introduced to journalists at a late Wednesday news conference. A decade of training together ensured effective, smooth cooperation between the three, Liu said.

"The Shenzhou-7 mission marks a historic breakthrough in China's manned space program," Zhai said. "It is a great honor for all three of us to fly the mission, and we are fully prepared for the challenge."

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