China aims to enable its astronauts to engage in extravehicular operations in the coming five years, according to a white paper on China's space activities issued on Thursday in Beijing.

The white paper, released by the Information Office of the State Council, says China will conduct experiments on spacecraft rendezvous and docking.

Sun Laiyan, administrator of China National Space Administration, said at a press conference of the Information Office of the State Council on Thursday that the launching time of the "Shenzhou VII" will be decided by the progress of the project.

"The 'Shenzhou VII' will be probably launched in 2008, " Sun said, adding that "the final candidate astronauts for 'Shenzhou VII' will be decided short before launching."

He also said that with the development of China's space technology, China will be able to send female astronauts, as well as scientists, philosophers and even journalists into space in the future.

The 8,500-character white paper, the second of its kind since 2000, illustrates the development of China's space industry over the past five years and its plans for the near future.

Introducing the major tasks of China's space industry in the coming five years, the white paper says China will carry out research on short-term manned and long-term autonomously orbiting space laboratories, which is of certain application scale, and carry out follow-up work of manned spaceflight.

On November 20 and 21, 1999, China launched and retrieved the first "Shenzhou" unmanned experimental spacecraft. It then launched three more "Shenzhou" unmanned experimental spacecraft not long afterwards.

On October 15 and 16, 2003, China launched and retrieved the "Shenzhou V" manned spacecraft, China's first of its kind.

Having mastered the basic technologies for manned spacecraft, China became the third country in the world to develop manned spaceflight independently.

From October 12 to 17, 2005, the "Shenzhou VI" manned spacecraft completed a five-day flight with two astronauts on board. This was the first time for China to have men engage in experiments in space.

Source: Xinhua