This mission's launch rocket features a special safety design.

This part of the rocket is called the escape tower. It's on the very top of the launch rocket that will carry Shenzhou 7 spaceship into orbit. If something goes wrong during takeoff, the escape tower would lift the modules containing the astronauts away from the rocket, bringing the Shenzhou 7 crew to safety in the blink of an eye.

Ren Quanbin, Tech director of Escape Tower Engine System, said, "It's the main engine for the escape tower. It has a propelling power of more than eighty to one hundred tons, so that it's capable of pushing the spaceship away from the dangerous part of the launch rocket in only three or four seconds. "

For astronauts, three or four can be the precious difference between life and death. It's long enough to take the crew module to a safe area two kilometers away.

But even this safety system has its limits, as it become ineffective when the altitude of the spacecraft exceeds 39 kilometers.

(CCTV.com September 24, 2008)