China is drawing closer to staging its first spacewalk from a Shenzhou spacecraft. Details of the Shenzhou 7 mission, planned for late 2008, have been emerging slowly for months through a trickle of Chinese media reports. But the recent Zhuhai Air Show in China has revealed a few more details, even if this disclosure was more indirect than official. A graphic illustration showing China's first spacewalk taking place can be dissected for clues.

For some time, it's been apparent that China's EVA spacesuit does bear a strong resemblance to the Russian Orlan EVA suit. Previous illustrations showed a Chinese suit that looked like an Orlan, and there's been no fashion makeover for the latest picture. It's not surprising. China's in-spacecraft pressure suits are apparently copies of the Russian Sokol suits, and it was natural to expect this trend to continue.

How many astronauts will actually leave the spacecraft? No Chinese illustration has ever shown more than one astronaut stepping beyond the outer hatch of the orbital module. But a cutaway diagram, released earlier than the latest Zhuhai graphics, suggest that another astronaut will be inside the Orbital Module when it is exposed to the vacuum of space, suitably clad in an EVA suit. This could be a safety precaution, allowing the spacewalker to be recovered in the event of a problem.

The Zhuai picture has no see-through details on the spacecraft, and we can't see the positions of any other crewmembers. But there's no reason to suspect that China would have changed its plans in the meantime, when so many other details seem consistent with previous illustrations.

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