The assembly of China's second manned spaceship and its carrier rocket has been completed.
The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Base in China's northwest Gansu Province says the assembly of Shenzhou VI spaceship and the Long March 2F rocket was finished Wednesday afternoon.
Jiang Jingshan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering who was involved in the first flight, said the spaceship is expected to be launched on October 13 if weather permits.
He said the launch date for Shenzhou VI could change according to weather conditions.
The expert said two astronauts have been selected to orbit Earth for five days, expanding the 21-hour flight of Shenzhou V which circled Earth 14 times in 2003.
He did not disclose the names of the astronauts who are expected to conduct experiments in the flight module and an orbital vehicle that will remain in space for months after the astronauts return to earth.
The Shanghai Morning Post, reported last month that Zhai Zhigang and Nie Haisheng were the likely candidates to be chosen to pilot the flight.
China's first man in space Yang Liwei, who became a national hero after his Shenzhou V flight, was named as sole astronaut of the inaugural manned flight only hours before the launch.
In a related development, the meteorological expert group that takes part in launching "Shenzhou VI" has been working on the launch base and it is responsible for providing the most accurate weather forecast.
They pointed out the launch time for both "Shenzhou V" and "Shenzhou VI" is in the daytime.
The main reason is that the rise in temperature at noon is more advantageous for the working personnel to make final preparations for "Shenzhou VI" and is also easier to provide full protection for the astronauts' personal safety should any accident occur.
An aerospace expert taking part in the development and manufacture of the spaceship said that the key points in designing "Shenzhou VI" are to optimize the setup of the whole spaceship, make rational arrangements for the on-orbit working modes of the newly added equipment, ensure the energy balance of the spaceship, and further increase the reliability and safety of the spaceship.
Another researcher concerned said that "Shenzhou VI" is not just a duplicate of "Shenzhou V" at all.
He pointed out that over 100 technological modifications have been made in "Shenzhou VI" and the spaceship will carry more experiments up into space.
During the long flight, the two astronauts will be able to take off their 10 kg space suits, open the door between the return cabin and the orbit cabin, and enter for the first time the orbit cabin to conduct scientific experiments.
In the cabin of "Shenzhou VI", sleeping bags have been provided in order to make the astronauts more comfortable; and the two astronauts can also warm up their food, do some sanitary work, and take a rest in turns.
China, the third country to put a man in space following the former Soviet Union and the United States, hopes to launch a mission to probe the moon by 2007 and land an unmanned vehicle on it by 2017.
(CRI, October 6, 2005)
