[BEIJING, March 10, CMSE News] Recently, Niu Hongguang, the deputy chief commander of the China manned Space Engineering and the deputy director of the General Armaments Department, accepted the interview from the reporter of CMSE, and introduced the latest development of the China Manned Space Engineering to which the public and the media paid much attention during the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Niu Hongguang said, in accordance with the three-step development strategy for China Manned Space Engineering as approved by the CPC Central Committee and after the successful implementation of extravehicular activity by the Shenzhou VII astronauts, the China Manned Space Engineering is progressing steadily, and various works for the second step (namely the spacecraft rendezvous & docking task) have been fully unfolded. As planned, the Tiangong-1 spacecraft and the Shenzhou XIII spaceship will be launched in 2011, so as to implement the first unmanned spacecraft rendezvous & docking test of China; thereafter, the Shenzhou IX spaceship and the Shenzhou X spaceship will be launched in 2012 respectively for carrying out the rendezvous & docking task with the spacecraft, so as to master the technologies relating to rendezvous and docking of spacecrafts in space. Tiangong-1 is not only the target spacecraft of rendezvous & docking task, but a simple space laboratory, and by taking it as a platform, the relevant technical demonstration for space laboratory will be carried out.

Niu Hongguang introduced that, at present, the main spaceflight-related products including Tiangong-1 spacecraft, Changzheng 2F rocket and Shenzhou XIII spaceship are being manufactured and tested successively, and the preparatory works for various effective equipment to be installed on Tiangong-1 spacecraft and Shenzhou XIII spaceship as well as the ground system are progressing smoothly.

Niu Hongguang also introduced the selection of second group of astronauts to which the public has paid much attention. He said, the selection of the second group of astronauts has been completed, 5 male astronauts and 2 female astronauts were determined recently, and this is the first time that China selects female astronauts.

Niu Hongguang said, when carrying out the above-mentioned works, we also arranged for the experts in the field of spaceflight and other relevant fields to complete the demonstration on the implementation program of manned space station project (2011-2022). This implementation program will be submitted to the CPC Central Committee for examination and approval in the first half of this year, and then the relevant research and construction will be initiated. In addition, the research into the development strategy for manned space engineering has been carried out, and the research into key technologies relating to the future development of manned space engineering has been initiated, so as to ensure the sustainable, sound and stable development of the manned space engineering.