Second Chinese Mission Announced

Chinese space officials have confirmed that their next mission, Shenzhou VI, could launch as early as September 2005. This next mission will carry a two astronauts, who will orbit the Earth for five days and perform a series of experiments in space. This will be the first flight for China since Yang Liwei was sent into orbit in October 2003. If this next flight is successful, China will follow this mission with spacewalks by 2007, and then orbital docking. China has also said that it’s looking to recruit women as astronauts for future missions.