25 Sept 2008

China set for spacewalk mission

Three Chinese astronauts are preparing to blast off from a remote launch site in western China on a mission that will include the country's first ever spacewalk.

The three-day journey into space is being touted as another giant leap for China's ambitious space programme, which has plans to build a space station and eventually put Chinese astronauts on the moon.

The flight on board the Shenzhou VII spacecraft is only China's third manned spaceflight, but it will be the first to carry the capsule's full complement of three astronauts.

The spacecraft is set for launch between 9:07pm and 10:27pm (13:07 and 14:27 GMT) on Thursday evening from the Jiuquan space centre in China's northwestern Gansu province.

Al Jazeera