Civilians given chance to reach for the stars

Mission team to be expanded by 2020; first female astronaut may debut next year

JIUQUAN, Gansu - Officials in charge of astronaut recruitment say civilians could soon get the chance to compete for a place on a spacecraft.

Bai Yanqiang, deputy chief of the program's astronaut system, said the astronaut team now has 20 members, but that number will be expanded to 30 once a space station is in place in about 2020.