Aerospace projects in China

The series of Shenzhou spacecrafts, from Shenzhou 1 to Shenzhou 11, are spacecrafts developed and operated by China to support its manned spaceflight program.

Shenzhou, literally meaning "magic boat", has been named with people's best wishes for the carrier in the space.

Shenzhou 1-4 are unmanned experimental spacecrafts for carrying astronauts.

Yang Liwei greets the world from the Shenzhou-V spaceship after he completed China's first manned space mission on Oct 16, 2003. Yang spent 21 hours in space, traveling more than 600,000 kilometres. He became the 241st human being in space. [Xu Jingxing / China Daily]

On Oct 16, 2003, China's first manned space mission was launched with Shenzhou 5 carrying Yang Liwei. China became the third country ever to launch a human into space.

Yang spent 21 hours in space, traveling more than 600,000 kilometers. He became the 241st human, but the first Chinese visitor in the space. He returned safely to the earth.

The video grab taken at the Beijing Space Command and Control Center on Sept. 27, 2008 shows Chinese taikonaut Zhai Zhigang outside the orbit module of the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft during his spacewalk. [Photo/Xinhua]

In 2008, China had its first spacewalker. Taikonaut Zhai Zhigang, who was then 42 years old, ventured out of the earth-orbiting Shenzhou 7 spacecraft on September 27 and became the first Chinese to leave a "footprint in the universe."

China thus became the third country in the world after the United States and the Soviet Union to undertake spacewalk.

China launched its first space lab Tiangong-1 in September 2011 with a design life of two years, in a preparation to put a permanent manned space station into service around 2022.