中国太空网

China may broadcast its first ever spacewalk live when it launches its third manned space mission later this year, state media reported Friday. The spacewalk is expected to be carried out by the crew of the Shenzhou VII spacecraft, rocketing into orbit some time late this year, Xinhua news agency said.

"The Shenzhou VII spacecraft is capable of live-broadcasting the walk," Yuan Jie, president of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, was quoted as saying. "But it has not been decided if the spacewalk will be broadcast in a live or recorded version."

The Shanghai academy is in charge of the transmission of pictures and audio signals from Shenzhou VII, Xinhua said.

China successfully launched astronaut Yang Liwei into orbit in 2003, making it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a man in space.

It sent two more astronauts into orbit in 2005. This year's mission is expected to involve a crew of three.

The programme operates on a shoestring budget, but the government seeks to maximise the value of each new step into space, hailing it as proof of China's emergence as a power in science and technology.

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