China will postpone the launch of its third manned space mission Shenzhou VII spacecraft for about half a year to 2008, a senior consultant to the country's space program said yesterday.

 

"There is nothing wrong. We just need more time to prepare for the mission," Huang Chunping, chief consultant for China's manned launching vehicle system, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency.

 

Tang Xianming, director of the China Manned Space Flight Engineering Office, announced last year that the next manned mission would take place in 2007 and would include a spacewalk.

 

The timetable depends on when researchers can tackle the key problem of the space suit, which will play a critical role in the anticipated space mission that includes a one-man spacewalking, said Huang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

 

Huang, commander-in-chief of the rocket system for Shenzhou V, China's first manned mission, is in Beijing attending the Fourth Session of the CPPCC National Committee, which started on Friday afternoon and will last about 10 days till March 13.

 

The Shenzhou VII spacecraft is a complicated program, which will involve careful design, tests, modification, trial production, assessment by experts and experiments before final production, according to Huang.

 

He promised that China is fully capable of tackling all technological problems.

 

The Shenzhou VII program is expected to carry three astronauts, while its predecessor Shenzhou VI transported two into space for a five-day tour in October last year.

 

China's first spaceman Yang Liwei made a 21-hour orbital tour aboard Shenzhou V in October 2003, making China the third country after the US and former Soviet Union to achieve the feat.

 

Also yesterday, a senior space scientist said China's moon-probe program will pave the way for the country's high-tech breakthroughs and innovation and will help train a large group of top scientists.

 

Ouyang Ziyuan, an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and also the country's chief scientist on the moon-probe program, said at a symposium held in Guiyang, Guizhou Province that China will benefit from its probe of the moon, particularly in the field of scientific innovation.

 

The moon probe demands lots of advanced technologies in the aspects of rocket communications, observing and control, remote sensing and manufacturing of lots of complicated instruments, the scientist said.

 

He said the research progress of all the above mentioned technologies will also drive the development of some fundamental science research, which will ultimately upgrade country's science and technology.

 

This has already been illustrated by the US and the former Soviet Union, which applied and developed their moon probe technologies in many fields for both military and civil uses.

 

Currently, China plans to invest 1.4 billion yuan (US$175 million) in the first phase of the program and funding will increase in the next second and third phases, Ouyang said.

 

He said the investment accounts for a very little of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) but it will be meaningful for China's economic and sustainable development.

 

In the 20th century, humans performed six manned moon flights and three unmanned missions, collecting 382 kilograms of samples from the moon and a great amount of scientific data.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2006)