China delays space walk mission to 2008
(Agencies)
Updated: 2006-03-05 08:41

China has postponed the launch of the Shenzhou VII rocket and the country's first space walk mission by six months until 2008.

"There is nothing wrong. We just need more time to prepare for the mission," said Huang Chunping, a senior consultant to China's space program Saturday.

China announced last year that the launch of the Shenzhou VII, the country's third manned mission, would take place in 2007 and would include a space walk.

But Huang, the chief consultant for China's manned launching vehicle system, said the timetable now depends on when researchers can tackle the key problem of the space suit.

Huang explained that Shenzhou VII was a complicated program that needed careful tests and trials, but promised that China was fully capable of tackling all technological problems.

China's most recent spaceflight took place last October when the Shenzhou VI put two astronauts into orbit on a five-day flight that overwhelmed the nation.

China is the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put men in space.

It has already announced that it is developing lunar satellites to probe the moon with one expected to fly by 2007 and another to land on the moon by 2012.

By 2017, China hopes to land an unmanned lunar probe on the moon and have it collect samples and return to earth.