Yang Liwei, who piloted China's maiden space flight in 2003 has said the intensive psychological shock would be unavoidable for the Shenzhou-7 astronaut when he moved out of the capsule.

Since the operation was highly automatic, it was the psychological factor other than the manual operation that decided the success of the mission, Yang said. Psychology would affect the mission greatly notably when space walking, which heavily relied on the astronaut's self-initiative.

The No. 2 astronaut will wear a different space suit, the Orlan space suit provided by a Russian supplier.

According to a contract signed in April, 2004, a Russia company provides three Orlan suits, two low-pressure training suits, four suits for underwater training, and four sets of docking systems in the craft. The Chinese side is responsible for providing power and communications equipment for some of the EVA suits.

"The active collaboration of the two countries in areas like astronauts training and the development of spacecraft have boosted the advancement of China's manned space industry," Wang Zhaoyao, spokesman with China's manned space program has said.

If Shenzhou-7 mission is successful, China will become the third country after United States and Russia to accomplish a spacewalk, a crucial capacity if China is to have its own permanent space station.

The space environment forecast center under the China Academy of Sciences said Friday that the space environment was sound and safe for the spacewalk between Sept. 26-28.

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2008)