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Chinese Official Rules Out Sending Women into Space in "Near Future"

Posted on: Wednesday, 11 August 2004, 06:00 CDT

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Beijing, 11 August: A senior Chinese space official said Wednesday [11 August] China would not send women in space in the near future. During a briefing on China's geospace exploration programme in cooperation with Europe, Sun Laiyan, director of the China National Space Administration, said China is considering a plan to select woman candidates and train them for space missions. "China has followed a policy of gender equality" since New China was founded in 1949, said Sun.

Qi Faren, designer-in-chief of the country's manned spacecraft, said earlier this year that there is no technical problem for China to send female astronauts into orbit. "Although men and women are quite different physically, we can accommodate woman astronauts by changing parts of the facilities in the space vehicle, and there are no technical problems that cannot be overcome." He said it is possible women may be chosen to do lab work on space missions in the future.

Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei landed safely on earth on 16 October, 2003 aboard the Shenzhou-5 after orbiting the Earth 14 times on the 21 hour mission, making China the third country after Russia and the United States able to put people in space.

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