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China puts man into space
China has launched its first manned space flight and has become only the third country to put a man into orbit. Lift-off from the Gobi desert was at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, the start of a mission that it is hoped will rocket China into the exclusive space club pioneered by the former Soviet Union and United States four decades ago. A Long March 2F rocket called the Shenzhou V — "divine ship" in Chinese — carried a single "taikonaut" named Yang Liwei, 38, following a trail blazed by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and American Alan Shepard in 1961. "The Shenzhou mission, if successful, will make China the third nation to send a man into outer space, following the former Soviet Union and the United States," the official Xinhua news agency said in a brief dispatch. State television said later that the spacecraft had entered Earth orbit.Sounds like they?re using really basic hardware: the one illustration of Shenzhou I've seen looked close to the old Russian Soyuz. Still, you?ve gotta respect, and envy, anyone who takes the ride. Get home safe, Liwei. Posted by: Mike 2003-10-15 |
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