China's first spacewalk mission to launch in October

BEIJING, June 12 (Xinhua) -- China's Shenzhou VII manned space mission, which will include the first spacewalk by a Chinese "taikonaut", is to launch in October, said a spokesman of the China manned space engineering office here on Thursday.

He would not give the exact date of the launch, but said a day would be selected in October as the time to start the mission.

A crew of six astronauts had been chosen for the mission, with three manning the spacecraft and three substitutes, said the spokesman.

The Shenzhou VII spaceship will be launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern province of Gansu and the astronauts will leave their spacecraft for the first time.