Just over one month after hailing its moon mission a success, China announces big plans for space exploration in 2008. State media in Beijing report that the country will launch its third manned space mission (Shenzhou VII) featuring its first space walk, later this year.

The plans also include sending up more than a dozen each of rockets and satellites, according to Huang Qiang, the secretary general of the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense, as quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency.

The manned mission, Qiang described, will carry three astronauts into space.

Just under five years ago, China joined the elite group of countries that have sent a human into orbit. The former Soviet Union (now Russia) and the United States are the other two. Since then, China’s space program has grown by leaps and bounds and has become a major source for national pride.