Women suiting up as astronauts (China Daily) Updated: 2004-03-12 23:46
China plans to recruit women astronauts for its
space voyage later next year, a senior space official said in Beijing on Friday.
Hu Shixiang, deputy chief commander of China's Manned Space Programme, said
the selection will cover the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao and not be
confined to the ranks of women pilots.
"Our selection of women astronauts will not merely be a symbolic, image
project," referring to appeals by a woman group for the inclusion of women to
prove sex equality, said Hu.
As crew members, women astronauts may conduct scientific experiments aboard
the ship, he said.
The first group of women astronauts will undertake three to four years of
physical and space flight training, the official said, and train in knowledge
and expertise for space-based scientific experiments.
Chinese women astronauts then will travel to space aboard home-built
spacecraft when the time is right, Hu explained, giving no specific schedule.
He said a meticulous nature is needed for astronauts, while experience and
test results, both physical and mental, will be crucial for research. China
hopes its exploration will aid humankind to have better understanding of space.
Hu acknowledged that China's first group of astronauts, all male, were
selected from the air force of the People's Liberation Army, including Yang
Liwei, who became China's first astronaut orbiting the earth in October 2003
aboard a home-built spaceship.
A senior woman official with the Beijing-based Space Medical Engineering
Institute, who was in charge of training astronauts, said spaceship designers
will have to make minor changes to the facilities inside the ship so as to help
accommodate women astronauts.
China joined Russia and the United States in the elite club of manned
spaceflight last October as the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft orbited the Earth 14 times
and returned safely.
China is manufacturing Shenzhou-6, a spacecraft for more than one astronaut,
planning Shenzhou-7 and conducting feasibility studies on future space docking
and the setting-up of a permanent laboratory in orbit.
"The astronauts are going to stay in orbit for more than five days and will
meet harsher challenges to their stamina, survival capability and psychological
quality," said Hu Shixiang, deputy commander-in-chief of China's manned space
programme.
He disclosed Chinese scientists and engineers are studying all the problems
that occurred during the previous launching of the Shenzhou spacecraft series,
in a hope to ensure a more secure operation of Shenzhou-6.
Space could be an ideal place for manufacturing industrial materials and
pharmaceuticals that are difficult to be produced on the Earth. "A future space
docking and the establishment of a space lab will make it possible for us to
explore space resources," he said.
