Sinos in Space!

Right now the Chinese have a three-manned spacecraft named Shenzhou-7 orbiting the Earth to complete a set of tasks that if successfully maneuvered will place China among the world's most advanced nations in regards to space travel. The Shenzhou-7 is completely Chinese, meaning each piece of the spacecraft (minus its docking technology which was imported from Russia so as to be compatible with the International Space Station), its technologies, and equipment including the spacesuit (called Feitian 飞天) are of Chinese design. Tonight is a very big test for the Chinese government and its space program. Project 921 was initiated in 1992 to send manned spacecraft into space, leading to eventual use of a Chinese space laboratory. This second phase of Project 921 includes six tests that will push the project one step further in exploring the capabilities of the Chinese space program. The six tests are as follows:
1. Blastoff:
The launch is the most accident-prone stage of space travel (see: US Challenger 1986), but the Jiuquan launchpad isn't too concerned. They've launched approximately 100 satellites in the past 5 years, all successfully, and the shuttle has been outfitted with 8 contingencies for monitoring its ascent.
2. Transfer the Orbit:
The orbit of the spacecraft will first begin at a close 200km from Earth and eventually move out to 350km from Earth, then it will transfer to a circular orbit at 343km (for smoother descent) and be controlled from Beijing space command center.
3. Saddling up:
The new Feitian suit took Chinese engineers 4 years to design and this will be its first test. Although the astronauts have trained many times using the exact same suit, putting it on in space will be much different. If they make one mistake, it will prove deadly. The entire preparation process will take a grueling 14 hours (and no... you guessed wrong... the astronauts AREN'T women!) Good luck Liu Boming! Don't forget your zipper...
4. Airlock:
To get from inside the spaceship to outside of it, astronauts must pass through an airlock. The airlock prepares them for the pressure difference. The airlock reduces air pressure to zero and upon reentry adjusts for the pressure inside the cabin. If the airlock fails to work, the mission fails.
5. Spacewalk:
Here's the money shot. Just you and space. Who will blink first? During the spacewalk, everything's more difficult. Just moving in the suit is hard enough, but outside in zero gravity, zero pressure, zero everything space...one false move could get you killed...fast. No pressure...
6. Blackout Area:
Upon return there's a blackout area, meaning no communication at all until the astronauts are approximately 40km from the ground. If they can get past this, the mission is a success. Hopefully the landing gear works...

Good luck China. Sounds like a tall order. As the United States increasingly cuts program funding for NASA, China is not only broadening its space program but more surprisingly is using its own technologies, which are being developed rather quickly (by comparison our most recently used spacesuit, the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, took 9 years to develop). We will certainly see increased activity from the Chinese as phase two of Project 921 aims to establish a Chinese presence at the International Space Station and develop a working Chinese Space Lab.

Ok, back to studying.