Chinese Astronauts in Orbit

China is one of only three nations on Earth to send people into space.  Space being, more precisely, in orbit about 350 kilometers (about 200 miles) above the surface of the earth. On September 25 China sent its third manned mission into orbit, with the goal of this mission being a space walk.  China's manned space program has been in existence for 16 years. Previous missions were launched in 2003 and 2005. The next missions are designed to support the Chinese effort to build a space station in orbit around the earth.  Future plans include landing Chinese astronauts on the Moon by 2017 with the expressed purpose of looking into the possibility of exploiting the Moon's Tritium, or Hydrogen-3 as an energy source back on earth...

Although I refer to the Chinese space travelers as "astronauts", they are often referred to in English as "taikonauts" much as Russians are referred to as "cosmonauts". "Taikong" is the Chinese word for space. In China, however, the astronauts are referred to as "yuhangyuans", which translates as "space navigators".  The picture above is artwork from http://www.spacetoday.org/China/ChinaTaikonauts.html