Shenzhou VII, China’s upcoming space mission, the first Chinese mission that will take astronauts into open space (extravehicular activity, as it is called) is almost set to start. The rocket, a modified Russian model, is going to be launched on Thursday between 9:07 pm and 10:27 pm China Time from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwest part of the Gansu Province. Fueling has already begun on the ship. Once the process, which lasts seven hours, has started it means that the spacecraft’s launch is irreversible.

The three-man mission will be (minimally, according to Chinese officials) supported by Russian experts, and of its two space-suits one will be a Russian model, and one will be a Chinese-designed one. The three astronauts, or as they are called in Chinese – hangtianyuan, are named Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, and they are all fighter pilots in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force.

This is China’s third manned mission into space, by far the most ambitious, and it’s a tense time as much new equipment, like the Chinese space-suit, is being tested now for the first time.

Long term plans for the Russian space program include sending two rovers to the Moon, and eventually a manned mission by 2020 at the latest. Co-incidentally, this is the same time NASA is planning a return visit to the lunar surface. Will we see a second moon race?

The upcoming launch mission also serves to extend the prestige the country gained at the Beijing Summer Olympics, and as Yan Xuetong, director of the Institute of International Studies at Tasinghua University in Beijing said in a statement, "When combined with a successful Olympics, it becomes very difficult for China to be [seen] as a developing country. With the huge amount of money spent and the high-tech capacity, the two things will make the world believe that China is a developed country, not a developing country.”