China counts down to space launch
BEIJING (Reuters) - China is counting down to 9.10 p.m. (9:10 a.m. EDT) on September 25 for its third manned space flight that will include a space walk, local media reported on Friday.
In October 2003, China became the third country to put a man in space with its own rocket, after the former Soviet Union and the United States. It sent two more astronauts on a five-day flight on its Shenzhou VI craft in October 2005.
"We will check the weather conditions to decide whether to launch as planned," Huang Chunping, rocket systems consultant for the Chinese Manned Space Program, was quoted as saying by the Oriental Morning Post.
"The space walk will take place after the craft has made five orbits," he added.
Previous reports in Chinese state media had said the launch would be between September 25 and 30.
Last year, China sent into orbit its first lunar probe and its longer term goals include establishing a space station and landing on the moon.
China's space program has come a long way since late leader Mao Zedong, founder of Communist China in 1949, lamented that the country could not even launch a potato into space.
(Reporting by Yu Le; Editing by Nick Macfie)
