China's Shenzhou 7 spacecraft has a slim chance to land out of China, an expert with the space project said on Sunday.

Except for the major and the standby landing sites, China has a large territory where set many emergency sites, said An Zhenhua, main designer of the landing system of China's manned space projects.

China has the possibility to chose foreign countries for landing in extreme conditions, which should be decided by the headquarter, An said.

The option countries, who had signed agreements with China, have the responsibilities to help searching for the spacecraft and return it to China, he said.

If it goes on successfully, the re-entry module will be found within half an hour to one hour, said An, whose team had attended the space projects ever since Shenzhou 1.

"We are confident to find the re-entry module before dark," he said.

However, uncertain elements still exist. Detailed emergency plans had been made and helicopters, airplane with paratroopers had been standby according to the plans, An said.

As of 2:00 p.m. Sunday, the space environment is stable and calm, which is favorable for the operation of the module and the taikonauts, according to the last forecast before landing from the Center for Space Environment Research and Forecast (CSERF) under Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The geomagnetic activities will be in a low level from September 28 to 30, which will provide a favorable environment to taikonauts.

As of 2:00 p.m., the spaceship which blasted off Thursday at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern Gansu Province, has made 44 orbits around the earth as scheduled.

The re-entry module will complete it mission on its 46 orbits and land on the earth at around 5:44 Sunday.

The trio onboard Shenzhou-7 started preparing on Sunday morning for the return trip to the earth after accomplishing China's first spacewalk on Saturday afternoon.

The three taikonauts were taking on in-cabin space suits at 11:10 a.m. and control data for the return trip would be sent to the spacecraft.

(Xinhua News Agency September 28, 2008)