Astronauts Fei Junlong (L) and Nie Haisheng wave to wellwishers after getting out of the return module of the Shenzhou VI spacecaft at the main landing field in Central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Monday morning October 17, 2005. [Xinhua]

Chinese astronauts will leave their spaceship to walk amongst the stars as part of the nation's next manned space mission.

The Shenzhou-VII due to be launched in two years time will carry three astronauts, who will make China's first space walks, said a senior designer, at Guangdong's on-going airshow.

"All our work on Shenzhou-VII is going smoothly and as scheduled," said Qi Faren, former chief designer of the Shenzhou series of spaceships.

The spaceship is a development from the Shenzhou-VI, which carried two astronauts into space last year, said Qi.

"Currently the spaceship's sub-systems are at spaceship city for assembly," said Qi, speaking at the Sixth China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai.

Meanwhile research and design projects for the Shenzhou-VIII, IX, and X spacecrafts are also under way, he added.

Candidate astronauts, including Yang Liwei, Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng, who have all made trips into space in the past few years, are competing to be selected for the mission, Yang said at a joint press conference on Wednesday.

"The physical, technical and mental requirements have been raised for the astronauts, because they will walk outside the spaceship," said Yang.

As yet, female astronauts have not been considered for the mission, said Yang, who is also the vice-director of the research and training centre for astronauts.

As the space flight programme develops, high-calibre female astronauts will be chosen for tasks in space, Yang promised.

Space tourists?

Answering a query about when common people may be sent into space, Yang said ordinary people will one day be able to enjoy space tours as spaceship technology matures and the physical requirements for space travel become lower.

"It's only a matter of time," Yang said.

Besides the launch of Shenzhou-VII, ambitious blueprints for China's rapidly growing aviation and aerospace industry have been mapped out.

The nation plans to carry out eight major aerospace missions or programmes in five years, said Zhang Yunchuan, minister for Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, at a summit held to coincide with the exhibition yesterday.