A scheduled 20 to 40-minute spacewalk, the highlight of China's third manned space mission, is expected to start at 4:30 PM on Saturday, Beijing time. That's according to the spokesman for China's manned space program, Wang Zhaoyao.

During a press conference on Friday, the spokesman said one astronaut will conduct the spacewalk. He will be assisted by another who will stay in the orbital module during the process. The other astronaut will stay in the re-entry module.

The spacewalker will retrieve a piece of experimental material fixed on the exterior surface of the orbital module.

The exact duration of the spacewalk will be adjusted according to the physical condition of the astronaut.

Wang says the entire process would be broadcast live on television.

Starting from 10:20 AM on Friday, two of the astronauts -- Zhai Zhigang and Liu Boming -- spent more than 11 hours unpacking and assembling their extra-vehicular activity suits in the orbital module. Meanwhile, Jing Haipeng stayed in the re-entry module to keep an eye on the vessel operation.

One of the suits is a China-made Feitian model. And the other one is a Russian-made Orlan model.

The ground command in Beijing says tests conducted by the astronauts show that both suits were in proper condition. The two men were also in excellent physical condition.

After finishing assembling their suits, Zhai and Liu began nearly 100 minutes of training -- designed to further prepare the astronauts to adapt to the low-gravity environment in space.

(CCTV September 27, 2008)