China´s Shenzhou-7 manned spacecraft to pass six key tests for successful mission

TEST 3: PUT ON SPACE SUIT

Astronauts will start preparing for the spacewalk in the spaceship's ninth circle around the earth. The most important part is to put on the space suit. The whole preparation will take about14 hours.

Chinese only spent four years in developing its own EVA (extra vehicular activity) suits, named Feitian.

Despite repeated training, it will be the first time for the astronaut to put on it in the outer space. The astronaut must strictly follow the procedure. Any mistake will lead to deadly results, said Zhou.

"It will be much different to put on it in the space from doingit on the earth," said Liu Boming, one of the three astronauts to be on board, "But I can only tell you what is the difference when I am back."

TEST 4: AIRLOCK

The airlock, a pressure chamber linking the main body of the spaceship to the outside, is new on Shenzhou-7 and was not required on the previous six space flights. Whether it will work properly decides whether the astronaut can finish the spacewalk.

Inside the airlock, the air pressure will reduce to zero before the astronaut steps outside and restore to the normal level inside the module after he returns. The whole procedure must finish within a certain period of time.

"The airlock is well designed and safe," said Zhang Bonan, chief designer of the manned spacecraft system.