China Readying First Female Astronaut

BEIJING – China hopes to send its first female astronaut into space by 2010, newspapers reported Monday.

She would work as a researcher at a planned Chinese space station, the reports said, adding that the pilots of China’s spacecraft will still be men.

China launched its first manned space mission last October. The government says it will send a pair of astronauts late next year in its second manned mission. A space station also is planned.

The government said in March that it would recruit women as astronauts after lobbying by the official All-China Women’s Federation.

Hundreds of Chinese women have flown for China’s air force and civilian airlines.

The United States and Russia are the only other countries that have sent manned spacecraft into orbit, and both have sent women into space.