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China plans to send its first astronaut into space next year. Two Chinese
have finished their training at Russia’s Cosmonaut Training Centre near Moscow
and are ready to fly. If successful, China will become only the third nation to
put a person in orbit under its own steam—others have hitched a ride with
the Russians or Americans. The event is timed to coincide with the 50th
anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic in October 1949.