China Sends Shenzhou 7 Spaceship With Three Crew into Space

BEIJING. Sept 25 (Interfax) – A third manned spaceship, Shenzhou 7, has lifted off from the Jiuquan launch pad in the northwestern province of Gansu.

The crew comprises cosmonauts Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, all of them born in 1966 and on the program for manned space flights since 1998. Their main mission is to carry out a spacewalk, the first one in the history of China’s space exploration.

The Shenzhou 7, comprising an orbital module, a recoverable module and an engine compartment, has flown into space on a three- day mission. The spacewalk is to last for 30 minutes and the preparation of the spacesuits will take about 15 hours. One of the main tasks of the experiment is to remove a 3-kilogram device with a solid lubricant, located in a container fixed on the surface of the spaceship.

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