¡¡¡¡BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese scientists and engineers now aim at space walking, space rendezvous and spacecraft docking as the second step for implementing the country's space program.

¡¡¡¡At a press conference held by the State Council Information Office Thursday morning, Xie Mingbao, director of the China MannedSpace Engineering Office, said that success of China's first manned space flight was "just the first step".

¡¡¡¡The press conference came a few hours after Lt. Col. Yang Liwei,the first Chinese astronaut, landed after a space journey of 600,000 kilometers, during which his ship orbited Earth 14 times.

¡¡¡¡Under a space program approved by the Chinese government ten years ago, Xie said, China will build a space station as the third step, but the work at this stage will also call for more efforts to solve problems regarding its application.

¡¡¡¡Xie disclosed that China would launch next Shenzhou in the coming one year or two. Zhou Xiaofei, director for manned space engineering of China Aerospace Science and Technology Group, said however that space walking and rendezvous-docking experiments are not expected on next Shenzhou mission.

¡¡¡¡Xie added that to date, China still has no plan to design and develop a space shuttle.

¡¡¡¡While striving to independently accomplish the forthcoming steps, he affirmed, the country is willing to cooperate with othercountries in space exploration on the basis of equality and mutualbenefit.

¡¡¡¡"China is willing to learn from the United States and Russia indeveloping space technology and to cooperate with any other country that treats China as an equal partner for mutual benefit,"he declared.

¡¡¡¡Xie confirmed that China has spent 18 billion yuan ( about 2.2 billion US dollars) on the five spacecraft of the Shenzhou series that have been launched so far.

¡¡¡¡Xie called astronaut Yang Liwei a "space hero" and a "national hero". He said that Yang's performances in space were "excellent,""surpassingly good".

¡¡¡¡The hero "will meet the public soon," said the official withoutspecifying when and where it will take place.

¡¡¡¡Yang landed on a site at Dorbod (Siziwang) Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China, at 6:23 a.m. Thursday, and then flew to a military airport on Beijing's western suburbs. He told the press that his conditions were good and he felt well.

¡¡¡¡The orbital module of Shenzhou-5 remains in its orbit and willcontinue operating for some time. Enditem