China Space Mission to Include Spacewalk

China’s space agency says its manned space mission set for October will include a spacewalk by one of the three-member astronaut crew.

Chinese scientists see the spacewalk as a major step for setting up a space laboratory or a station at a future date.

In the spacewalk, the first Chinese taikonaut will fully or partially leave the spacecraft, named Shenzhou VII, Mandarin for divine vessel, China Daily reported.

The Shenzhou VII manned space mission will be carried out at an appropriate time in October this year, a space agency spokesman told China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

The mission will conduct scientific experiments in space, the spokesman said. The report gave no details.

Although no official date for a space station has been announced, Chinese experts hope to complete it by 2020, China Daily reported.

The Shenzhou VIII is set to be launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province.

China conducted its first manned spaced mission in 2003, the third country to do so after the former Soviet Union and the United States.