China To Launch Its First Manned Space Vehicle

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China Space Launch Planned for October 15

 

 

Two of China's fourteen astronauts training at the

Jiuquan launch pad in western Gansu Province. Image source: BBCi.

 

 

China's CCTV state television says government plans to launch its first manned space vehicle on October 15. The Shenzhou V spacecraft is expected to orbit earth one or more times before returning.

 

Exactly who will be China's first humans in space is yet to be announced, but there are reports that fourteen astronauts are training at the launch pad in Jiuquan, western Gansu Province.

 

The Chinese word for spacemen is "yuhangyuan." If successful, China will be the third Earth nation to put humans in space. The first were the Soviet Union and United States.

 

The BBC reports that China's Director of Rocket Design, Xie Guangxuan, said, "China's space technology has been created by China itself. We started later than Russia and the United States. It's amazing how fast we've been able to do this."

 

The BBC's correspondent in Beijing, Louisa Lim, also reports that a Chinese defense official, Wang Shuquan, has confirmed that China also intends to send a research satellite to orbit the moon within the next three years. The goal is to orbit the moon for a year, gathering data abut lunar geology, soil, environment and natural resources.

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China's first manned spacecraft has entered orbit, making it the third country to send a human into space.

 

A Long March 2F rocket blasted off from the Gobi desert launch pad at 0900 (0100 GMT), and the Shenzhou V spacecraft was orbiting Earth 10 minutes later.

The craft, carrying a single astronaut, Yang Liwei, is expected to circle the planet 14 times, returning to Earth after a flight of about 22 hours.

 

President Hu Jintao was present for the launch, and said it was "the glory of our great motherland and a mark for the initial victory of the country's first manned space flight".

 

Only the United States and the former Soviet Union had previously sent humans into space.

 

bbc story