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China to send two astronauts into orbit

BEIJING, July 5 (UPI) -- China is preparing to send two astronauts into orbit in September as the next step in its space program that aims to eventually put a man on the moon.

The two men will be chosen from a pool of six currently in training, Xinhua reported Tuesday.

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Huang Chunping, the man who pushed the button to launch China's first manned spaceflight in 2003, said the astronauts were training in pairs, and the best performing pair would be selected for the Shenzhou VI spacecraft.

Huang said China planned to speed up its space program and would be ready to build its own orbiting space station in 2010. He said the country would like to launch a manned spaceflight every year.

China sent its first man into space in October 2003, when astronaut Yang Liwei orbited the Earth 14 times on the Shenzhou V spacecraft.

Future plans call for a spacewalk on the Shenzhou VII mission, and eventually a moon landing.

China is the third country, after Russia and the United States, to successfully launch an astronaut into space.

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