BEIJING, February 28 (RIA Novosti) - China is to carry out its first spacewalk in the second half of 2008, when a Chinese astronaut will step out into open space from the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft, the Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.
China, which has recently unveiled comprehensive space exploration plans, is only one of three countries in the world capable of independently launching manned spaceflights, after the United States and Russia.
The news agency also said, citing an official with the Chinese manned space program, that the spacecraft would be launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province, in the northwest of China.
The spacecraft will also release a small inspection satellite, but the agency did not give any more details.
In 2003 and 2005 the Shenzhou-5 and Shenzhou-6 spacecraft carried three Chinese astronauts into space.
