China had previously announced that the flight of Shenzhou VII had been pushed back from 2007 to 2008 so engineers could perfect a homemade space suit to be used in the walk.

"The design of the space suits has been completed but they still need to be tested," the chief consultant to Shenzhou VII mission, Qi Faren, said as he outlined the 2008 schedule, according to the Beijing Times.

Huang, a leading rocket engineer on the project, meanwhile told the Beijing Morning Post that two astronauts may have a chance to walk in space.

In April last year, Chinese space officials said the flight would likely take place in September 2008, only weeks after Beijing hosts the Olympic Games.

Huang insisted that the flight was not being timed for the Olympics, but said preparations were advanced enough that the flight could be launched ahead of the Games in August, the paper said.

China became the third nation to place a man in space after the former Soviet Union and the United States, when Yang Liwei piloted the Shenzhou V on a short mission in October 2003.

Two years later, the Shenzhou VI carried two astronauts into space on a five-day mission.

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