Chinese women could be in space by 2012

China's female astronauts could fly into space as soon as the latter half of
next year, said a senior official in charge of the manned space program on
Friday.

According to the program schedule, a space module Tiangong-1 and the
Shenzhou VIII spacecraft will be launched in the latter half of this year in
the first unmanned rendezvous and docking mission.

Yang Liwei, deputy director of China Manned Space Engineering Office and
also China's first astronaut in space, said that next year China will launch
two spacecraft to further improve China's rendezvous and docking
technologies and one of the spacecraft will be manned.

"Two to three astronauts will be sent to space in that mission next year,"
he said, without elaborating.

Fei Junlong, leader of China's astronaut team, told reporters that the two
women astronauts and five men astronauts - the second batch of Chinese
astronauts selected last year - have to take a three-year training course
before carrying out space missions.

But Yang said that there are possibilities for women to join next year's
mission.

The two women astronauts, both pilots from the People's Liberation Army
(PLA) Air Force, are the first women astronauts in China.

Before the current group of astronauts were selected, the 14 astronauts
recruited in 1997 were all men, including Yang and Fei. So far, six of them
have flown to space in three different missions.

Yang and Fei, as well as Chen Shanguang, director of the Astronaut Center of
China, introduced China's manned space programs to 56 overseas reporters on
Friday at the "space town" in the northern Beijing suburb, where astronauts
are trained.