¡¡¡¡BEIJING, Feb. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- China plans to make its first manned space flight later this year, Monday's Beijing Youth Daily reported.

¡¡¡¡The newspaper quoted an anonymous source with the space flight administration as saying the manned space flight was likely to be made in November, but exactly when would depend on whether the spacecraft was ready and the weather was right.

¡¡¡¡The Shenzhou-V spacecraft was being assembled and most of the equipment it would carry had passed examination, the source said.

¡¡¡¡The "Shenzhou" series of spacecraft had been fully tested afterfour unmanned space flights, the source added.

¡¡¡¡According to the newspaper, 12 Chinese would-be astronauts, allselected from top air force pilots with an average age of 30, height of 1.70 m and weighing 65 kg, were under training. Three would be aboard the space flight.

¡¡¡¡Space suits had been made, each weighing 10 kg and space food solely developed in China had also passed testing. Enditem