expected to put a pair of astronauts (called "yuhangyuans")into space.
It is estimated that they will do 14 orbits before coming into land in the region of Mongolia. One guess has the lead pilot called 'Yang Liwei' as a more than likely contender for the honor of leading the mission.

Chances are it may not appear widely in mainstream press in the west so a bit of googling may be required to get the full details :-)

Web sites to check include :-
- [link|http://www.china.com/|http://www.china.com/] (oops - you need a vocab of 3000 Kanxi chars for that one)
- [link|http://www.space.com/news/spaceagencies/china_builds_capsules_010311_wg.html|http://www.space.com...es_010311_wg.html] (backgrounder)
- [link|http://www.spacetoday.org/China/ChinaTaikonauts.html|http://www.spacetoda...naTaikonauts.html] (Names the day of the flight)
- [link|http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2126895|http://www.chron.com...mpl/world/2126895] (Houston Cronicle (keeping Shrub informed :-) this article is comprehensive)
- [link|http://www.sinodefence.com/space/921/astronaut.asp|http://www.sinodefen...921/astronaut.asp] (recent photos of some yuhangyuans)
- [link|http://theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,7407918%255E29098,00.html|http://theaustralian...255E29098,00.html] (Australian report - contains two more names of possible yuhangyuans)
- [link|http://fpeng.peopledaily.com.cn/200303/30/eng20030330_114252.shtml|http://fpeng.peopled...0330_114252.shtml] (Chinese peoples daily repost from today - mon 13th Oct)

etc: etc: etc:


Keywords to google could include :-

- shredded pork with garlic sauce (what it is said they will eat :-)
- Yuhangyuan (the chinese name for an astronaut)
- Jiuquan (the name of their 'Cape Canaveral' center)
- Shenzhou (the type of space capsule used)
- Qi Faren (The designer of the Shenzhou)
- Long march rocket (Rocket used to put capsule up)


Also, one Chinese official assured a western journalist (who asked the question) that the yuhangyuans would definitely not contaminate space with SARS.

Enjoy

Cheers

Doug Marker
#1 added peoples daily news item from Mon 13th Oct
#2 tidied up title & lead para
#3 corrected month of flight