"If we liken the return capsule on the spacecraft Shenzhou-5 that took me into space to a one-room apartment, the future space station China is trying to build might be compared to a spacious villa," Chinese taikonaut Yang Liwei told Chinese media outlet Xinhua Sunday.
Yang, China's first taikonaut who was heaved into space in 2003, told Xinhua that the future space station is about 60 tonnes in weight and is able to accommodate six Chinese taikonauts to work and live inside.
"The space station is much more spacious than the Tiangong-1 space lab module and will provide taikonauts with better working environment and platform," said Yang, who is the deputy director of the office of China's manned space program.
China launched to space Tiangong-1, or Heavenly Palace-1, in late September for the country's first-ever space rendezvous and docking with spacecraft Shenzhou-8, expected to blast off in early November at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern Gobi desert.
The upcoming docking is considered a key step for China's three-phase manned space program, which aims to build a permanent manned space station around 2020.
"China welcomes astronauts or cosmonauts from other countries to participate in our space station and other manned space programs," the Chinese first taikonaut said.
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