China Develops Space-walk Suit

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China's first space walk is expected to last up to an hour, the mission's chief technician said yesterday. And the history-making astronaut with Shenzhou VII will wear a Chinese-made space suit.

Unlike its American counterparts, the China-made suit will not have its own power system. A cord will link the astronaut with the spacecraft to provide oxygen, power and communications.

United States space suits were made of soft material and divided into two parts, the trunk and the trousers, said Pang Zhihao, an aerospace expert. Astronauts can only put them on with help from others.

Russian suits were mostly made with metal and astronauts could manage by themselves, Pang said.

The suit for the space-walk astronaut on the Shenzhou VII mission was developed by Chinese scientists based on the Russian design, Pang said.

In the walk one astronaut would stay in the capsule while the other two would enter the airlock, said chief technician Zhao Changxi.

Both astronauts in the airlock would have to wear space suits but only one would walk in space, Zhao said. The other would stay in the lock to provide assistance.

The astronaut who remains in the airlock will wear a Russian space suit. However, future missions will exclusively use the Chinese suits.

The Long March 2F rocket will carry China's third manned spacecraft into orbit. Cameras inside and outside the capsule have been set up for live screening of the five-day mission.

Shenzhou VII is more technically demanding than China's second manned space mission, Shenzhou VI, which had a crew of two.

It would test new technology for satellite communications, Zhao said, and had a China-developed airlock.

China launched a new tracking ship on April 12 to monitor the Shenzhou VII.

(By Li Xinran)

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Editor: Chen Minjie