¡¡¡¡Tuesday's China Daily quoted CASTC President Zhang Qingwei as saying themission is pushing China's space program ever closer to manned flights.

¡¡¡¡Besides the fault-detecting and handling system that had been equipped inthe carrier rocket of the last unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou III, the new one is supported by a search and rescue system based at ground-level in a bid to guarantee the safety of astronauts, Zhang said.

¡¡¡¡The new spacecraft will also have "dummy astronauts" on board, he added.

¡¡¡¡"If the test flight of Shenzhou IV is successful, I can envision that a manned space flight is just around the corner," he said but refusing to give a timetable.

¡¡¡¡Fourteen Chinese astronauts -- selected from thousands of air force pilots-- have undergone training on Shenzhou III and IV spacecraft, according to Zhang.

¡¡¡¡The country is close to break-throughs in technologies related to spaceship docking, space walks, space labs and deep-space exploration, he said.

¡¡¡¡China started its manned space flight program in 1992.

¡¡¡¡Zhang also released that nine satellites will also be launched next year, a record most in a 12-month period. Enditem