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China's 1st Space Walk Mission a Step Toward the Moon?

from National Geographic News

China is counting down toward Friday's launch of its most challenging space mission yet, which is set to include the country's first space walk.

The mission furthers an ambitious space program that plans to build a base on the moon—in cooperation with NASA or not. The flight of the Shenzhou VII rocket—China's third manned mission—is scheduled to take off not quite a year after Beijing deployed its first spacecraft to map the lunar surface.

"We intend to send astronauts to the moon and ultimately to build a lunar outpost," said Zhang Qingwei, who was until recently a leader of China's manned space program. ... Zhang said China would be willing to participate in the international lunar outpost designed by NASA. Astronauts are scheduled to begin building that settlement in 2020.