Yang Liwei: I am proud of my motherland

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

Yang Liwei: I am proud of my motherland

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Space hero back in Beijing

October 16 is another exceedingly exciting day for the people of the whole country and is also a day going down in the annals of history of the Chinese nation!

Yang Liwei, a Chinese astronaut on board the "Shenzhou V" spaceship, returned from outer space after traveling in space for 21 hours and making 14 circles round the earth.

Despite the chilly morning weather at the main landing site on an Inner Mongolian grassland, the spirited and excited rescuers and journalists hurried to the predetermined place in the wee hour and waited there for hours to witness this historic moment. At this main landing site with a flat and smooth terrain and vast horizon, the not yet withered and yellow forage grasses were waving with the breeze, spreading quietly to the four sides. At a distance, small mountain ridges were faintly seen, just like the mother of a vast land opening its two arms to embrace its traveler back from the outer space.

"Adjustment of spaceship bearing", "separation of orbital cabin", "the beginning of braking", "the separation of the propulsion cabin" and "re-entry into the atmospheric layer". At 6:00 a.m., dispatching orders issued from monitoring stations and monitoring ships scattered in various localities clearly sounded in the commanding ambulance car at the landing site. The data shown in the ambulance display screen indicated that the spaceship had successfully completed the return action and begun to enter into Chinese territory.

Astronaut Yang returns safely (3)

At 6:07 a.m., the recovery cabin less than 100 km from the ground was in a state of un-powered flight and quickly entered into the 40-km black barrier area, the violent frictions between the surface of the spaceship and the atmospheric layer generated an ionic layer and formed an electromagnetic screen, thus causing a temporary suspension of communication between the ground and the spaceship and leaving shorter distance and less time for attaining the target. The landing site temporarily became very quiet.

The "recovery I discovers the target!" As the first forward radar station that caught the target, they accurately caught the target when the spaceship just got out of the black barrier area, the sound of the agitated report broke the temporary silence.

The "Recovery II discovers the target", in light of the guided data provided by "recovery I", the radar antenna of the measuring station steadily caught up with the target. When the spaceship was about 30 km away from the ground, the operator of the surveying station determinedly gave the spaceship the important order to "put through the recovery main power source", this was another crucial moment, whether or not the recovery main power source of the recovery cabin of the "Shenzhou" V could get on at this moment had a direct bearing on whether or not the spaceship could be landed and recovered smoothly. People once again held their breath.

"The getting through of the main power source, the start of the recovery landing procedure."

Yang gives a solute to President Hu before boarding

Time was drawing near to "zero hour" second by second, the distance between the spaceship and the ground was becoming shorter.

A perfect outer space relay was finally passed on to the last baton.

"Air search begins", landing site commander Xia Changfa gave the order.

Then, five helicopters began droning, a five-point array was formed over the landing area, a three-dimensional search net was unfolded speedily, presenting a very magnificent view over the landing site.

"Helicopter 1 discovers the target!" an exciting news came from the air search detachment. The direction finder on the helicopter received the signal from the beacon instrument on the recovery cabin, at the moment, two helicopters still waiting on the ground immediately took off to join the air search detachment.

Each helicopter carried with it related on-the-spot handling tools for recovery cabin. When a target is discovered, the helicopter will land immediately and carry out on-the-spot rescue of the astronaut.

At 6:12 a.m., there came a clap of thunder in the sky, "the parachute-throwing cabin is covered!", although the canopy of the heavens already became dark blue, everybody cast their eyes to the sky without prior agreement, eagerly doing search work. At that moment, the spaceship had taken a series of technical actions, such as completing opening the main parachute and dragging out the antenna.

According to space experts on the recovery spot, at a height of 10 km above the ground, a giant parachute with an area of 1,200 square meters was opened, the recovery cabin began to reduce speed for landing, at the time when the spaceship was six km from the ground, the huge anti-heat bottom of the recovery cabin with a diameter about 2.5 meters, like the lid of a pan, was already cast away. This anti-heat layer made of composites can effectively resist the 2,500-degree C high temperature caused by the drastic friction of the atmospheric layer and thus keep the recovery cabin safe and sound.

At the moment, the "rescuing state system at the landing site" in the ambulance commanding car accurately displayed various kinds of information, such as the advance of the air and ground detachments as well as the topography and terrain of the landing area. On the electronic map, the five-colored curves representing the five helicopters began to gather at the landing area. "We've seen the spaceship, we've seen the spaceship!", "It's over there, It's over there!" "The Shenzhou has come back!"

"I'm the Shenzhou V, I've landed." The commanding car heard the astronaut's deep voice of report.

"The helicopter report, the visual recovery cabin." The helicopter came down slowly and landed on the vast expanse of land near the recovery cabin landing point. The searchers and rescuers jumped down from the helicopter and charged like an arrow to the recovery cabin.

The appearance of the cabin turned into deep brown color due to the high temperature caused when flying through the atmospheric layer, when one touched it, one felt the residual heat.

The historic moment finally came! The rescuers quickly set up the handling platform and proficiently opened the cabin door, the astronaut, dressed in white aerospace suit and brimming with high spirits, looked out of recovery cabin, he pushed his face mask up and smilingly waved greetings to the crowd welcoming him back home. He said, "I'm proud of my motherland".

For quite a while, there was a burst of thunderous applause on the grassland, many people were moved to tears. A Mongolian girl presented a hada to Yang Liwei.

Astronaut Yang Liwei walked slowly down the slide toward the ground, with the help of aeronautical experts, he conducted gravitational adaptability, this reporter lost no time to record this historic moment.

Designated by the general commander Li Jinai of China's Manned Space Project, General Armaments Department Deputy Political Commissar Zhu Zengquan went to the landing site to greet the astronaut Yang Liwei and, together with Xia Changfa, head commander of the landing site, escorted Yang back to Beijing by chartered plane. At 7:40 a.m., Yang boarded a helicopter and left the landing site, the exciting people on the spot gazed after the astronaut, gazing the direction whereto the helicopter was flying.

At that moment, the first cloud of dawn just appeared at the horizon. At the same moment, the National Anthem of the People's Republic of China was once again played and the Five-Star National Flag rose slowly at the Beijing Tiananmen Square, a new day began.

Please remember this great and glorious day! October 16, 2003 was the day when the Chinese nation's thousand-year-old dream of flying to heavens came true. Be proud of our motherland! China has become the third country, after Russia and the United States, which has the ability to carry out the manned space flight activity!

This dispatch was sent back from the spaceship landing site in the central part of Inner Mongolia on October 16 by correspondent Jiang Jianke of People's Daily Online.

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