spacetoday.net: China launches third manned mission

Posted: Fri, Sep 26, 2008, 6:44 AM ET (1044 GMT)
Long March 2F launch of Shenzhou 7 (Xinhua)

China launched on Thursday Shenzhou 7, its third human spaceflight mission and the first to conduct a spacewalk. The Long March 2F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 9:10 am EDT (1310 GMT, 9:10 pm Beijing time) Thursday and placed the Shenzhou 7 spacecraft into low Earth orbit. The launch is the third human mission for China and the first in nearly three years; on board are astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming, and Jing Haipeng. The highlight of the mission is a spacewalk scheduled for early Saturday, when one of the three astronauts, wearing a Chinese spacesuit, will exit the spacecraft and retrieve samples from the exterior of the spacecraft. A second member of the crew, wearing an Orlan spacesuit purchased from Russia, will remain in the depressurized orbital module while the third crewmember will be in the pressurized reentry module. The mission is slated to last three days.