China's first astronaut returns safely

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, October 16, 2003

China's first astronaut returns safely

China's first astronaut Yang Liwei was confirmed to remain in good health after a 21-hour space travel, the recovery team said.

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Astronaut Yang returns safely

The re-entry capsule of Shenzhou-5 landed safely in north China's Inner Mongolia, at 6:23 a.m. Thursday and Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut in space, stepped out of the re-entry capsule in good situation.

This signals that China has become the world's third spacefaring country, following Russia and the United States.

The recovery personnel at the landing site said that conditions of the 38-year-old Yang were good after he spent 21 hours in space, orbiting the Earth 14 times.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced China's first manned spaceflight a "complete success" after talks with astronaut Yang Liwei upon the landing of the re-entry capsule of Shenzhou-5.

China's first astronaut returns safely

Shenzhou-5 traveled 600,000 km during the flight, realizing a centuries-old dream cherished by the Chinese nation.

In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a man named Wan Hu tried to send himself into the sky by lighting gunpowder-packed bamboo tubes tied to his seat. The gunpowder exploded, killing the man who has been remembered as the first Chinese attempting to fly.

The man's dream was, in fact, the dream of all the Chinese. The country abounds in fairy tales about humans vs. space. One is about a woman of surpassing beauty flying to the moon after taking some magic medicine, where she stays as the Goddess of Moon. The story of the woman named Chang'e has always been a most favorite theme in traditional Chinese painting, poetry and drama.

The dream was to be realized centuries later in New China, a China recognized as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, as a country taking giant steps towards modernization under the reform-and-opening policy since the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In 1992, the country started a manned space flight program, in the wake of success in sending man-made earth satellites into space. Spacecraft of the Shenzhou series ventured, successfully, into the outer space four times from 1999 to 2002 under the program.

Yang's return to land from outer space signifies completion of the first step taken by China to implement its plans for space exploration. More steps are to follow -- attempts for space walk, rendezvous and docking of spaceships and setting up of a space lab.

Sometime from now, up in the space, high up over the Earth, there will be a space station which, like Shenzhen-5 that has just made history, will be designed, built and manned by the Chinese.

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China declares manned spaceflight successful

China's first astronaut out of re-entry capsule

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