Shenzhou 7, which is China’s third manned spacecraft, will be launched from the Chinese Jiuquan launch center, which is located in the northwest portion of Inner Mongolia. Construction of the spacecraft and selection and training of the crew are reportedly proceeding smoothly. The final testing of its new spacesuit, specially designed for the spacewalk, has yet to be performed. The three-person crew will be the largest for a China manned mission. The extra-vehicular activity (EVA) will be the first performed by the Chinese.

Shenzhous is translated into English as “Divine Craft” or “Divine Vessel”. Although based on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, the Chinese Shenzhous spacecraft is much larger. Plus, it contains a powered orbital module for independent flight. It consists of the forward orbital module, a middle-positioned reentry capsule, and a rear service module.

According to Wang Zhougui, director of CNSA’s Manned Space Flight Engineering Office, the Shenzhous 7 mission is described in China Daily as: “The space walking astronauts will walk in the self-made space suit and do some space experiments. Our initial plans are to have 1 or 2 astronauts walk in space for about half an hour."

Following this flight, China plans to launch Shenzhou 8, between 2009 and 2011, in order to perform a docking procedure in space between either two spacecraft or one spacecraft and one space capsule. In addition, China is also planning the construction of a space station in the near future.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) was started in 1956 with the help of the USSR (now Russia). According to space experts, defense of the country—especially the use of space militarily—was the main driving force to create CNSA. During these early years, CNSA was involved with guided missiles, rockets, and various other defense activities. Its first spacecraft, Dongfanghong 1 ("The East Is Red 1") was a ballistic missile, which was launched in 1970.

China became the third country, after the United States and the former U.S.S.R. (Russia), to put a human in space when pilot Yang Liwei was sent aboard Shenzhou 5 in October 2003. The first Russian cosmonaut to perform a spacewalk was Alexei Leonov, on March 18, 1965, and the first U.S. astronaut was Ed White, on June, 3, 1965.

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