China makes the final preparations for the nation's third space venture,
due to take off later this week.

(ASIA) JIUQUAN, GANSU PROVINCE, CHINA (SEPTEMBER 23, 2008) CCTV -
ngineers at the Shenzhou VII control room carried out the final
test launch of its third manned space flight on Tuesday (September 23).
The flight, which will carry three astronauts into space, will take off
on Thursday (September 25), weather permitting, from the remote Jiuquan
Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China.
Three astronauts and three back-up astronauts are living in quarantine
at the launch centre until the planned spacewalk mission departs.
Jing Muchun, Chief Designer of the manned space flight project, said
that all the final checks indicated that everything was on course for a
successful flight.
"Throughout this rehearsal, we have been monitoring the status of
the shuttle in terms of its connectivity with the ground facilities, which is
to say that the connectivity status will remain unchanged. Basically the
shuttle will be locked after this rehearsal until it is ready to be
launched," Jing said.
Ships fitted with satellite tracking devices are already in position,
waiting to track the space mission, said the state news agency Xinhua.
The five vessels, linked into terrestrial surveying stations, are all
functioning normally.
China's first manned space flight in 2003 was greeted with triumphant
publicity, as was the second in 2005.
China is only the third country to put humans in space, after the
former Soviet Union and the United States.