Thursday, China launched a 3-man crew mission that is to perform the country’s first spacewalk, which is expected to take place this Friday or the day after.

This counts as the most challenging mission for China since it sent a person into space back in 2003. At that time, Shenzhou V, a Long March 2F rocket, blasted off from the Gobi desert, rendering China the third country to send a human into space. Lieutenant in the People's Liberation Army Yang Liwei was the only astronaut on the country’s first manned spacecraft. In 2003, Chinese President and Communist Party head Hu Jintao was present for the lauch. This year, he was shown live at the blast off site near the northwestern town of Jiuquan on state television hailing the three astronauts and telling them that the Chinese people awaited for their triumphant return.

The mission’s sole purpose is the 40-minute long spacewalk of one of the astronauts. The Shenzhou 7 spacecraft, which was launched atop a Long March 2F rocket, will spend up to four days into orbit. Whether the walk will take place on Friday or on Saturday depends on how well the men adjust to weightlessness and other environmental conditions. The spacewalk is aimed at aiding China master the technology for docking two orbiters to create the country’s first orbiting space station in 2020. Thursday’s launch from the western China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu Province is part of Project 921, China’s manned space program.

China has so far sent Chang'e, a robotic spacecraft, to the moon, further planning to land a robotic rover on the lunar surface in 2010. The country hopes to become the third, after the United States and Russia, to conduct a spacewalk. On March 18, 1965, now retired Russian cosmonaut Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov was the first human to walk into space, while on June 3 the same year, Ed White performed the first U.S. spacewalk, during the Gemini 4 mission.

Currently, both India and Japan are developing their own space programs, that are to compete with China’s one. The three Chinese astronauts, all 42-year-old experienced fighter pilots, will be receiving support from Russian experts throughout their mission. Zhai Zhigang, the crew leader, along with Jing Haipeng and Liu Boming stated that they felt fully prepared for the challenge they were facing. The men are to take samples from space, as well as launch a small satellite monitoring station.

During the 4-day mission, their diet is said to include shredded pork sautéed with garlic and grilled beef with spicy sauce.
One of the astronauts is wearing a $4.4 million space suit that was both designed and produced in China, deemed by the media as the most complicated and expensive suit in the world.