China Sends Man Into Orbit, Entering U.S.-Russian Club

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

China Sends Man Into Orbit, Entering U.S.-Russian Club

October 15, 2003
 By JIM YARDLEY





BEIJING, Wednesday, Oct. 15 - The Chinese spacecraft
Shenzhou 5 blasted off from the Gobi Desert on Wednesday
carrying a single astronaut. The launching left government
leaders jubilant yet also anxiously awaiting his safe
return so China can stake its claim as one of the world's
elite space-faring nations.

The launching took place about 9 a.m., according to the
state-run television network, CCTV. At about 9:30, the
network showed a videotape of the rocket soaring to the
heavens.

The Shenzhou 5, or Divine Vessel, is expected to orbit
Earth 14 times before returning after a voyage of roughly
21 hours.

If successful, the mission would make China the third
nation to send a man into space, coming more than four
decades after the Soviet Union and the United States
accomplished the feat at the height of the cold war.

The mission also carries broad political significance for
the Chinese government, which hopes to win good will and
inspire nationalism in its citizens, many of whom regard
the Communist Party as an increasingly irrelevant political
dinosaur.

Top officials also want to display China's growing
technological savvy and stake a claim to being a world
power considered equal to the United States.

Until recent days, the mission has been cloaked in secrecy,
down to the most basic information, including how many
astronauts would be on board. But on Wednesday morning the
lone astronaut proved to be Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, 38, who
was chosen from a pool of 14.

"I will not disappoint the motherland," Sina.com, the
country's leading Web site, quoted him as saying. "I will
complete each movement with total concentration. And I will
gain honor for the People's Liberation Army and for the
Chinese nation."

A former pilot, Colonel Yang became an astronaut after
passing an aptitude test in 1993.

Soon after he rose aloft this morning, Colonel Yang was
asked by a doctor at the control center about his
condition, the New China News Agency reported, and replied,
"I feel good and my conditions are normal."

Assuming he can safely return the spacecraft to its landing
spot in Inner Mongolia, Mr. Yang would become an instant
national hero, putting a human face on a mission that has
emphasized the collective technical prowess of the space
program, rather than individuals.

"The successful launching of the Shenzhou 5 manned
spacecraft is a glory for our great motherland," President
Hu Jintao said in comments issued by the New China News
Agency, "and it signifies that our country has scored an
initial victory in this first effort at manned space
flight. It also signifies the Chinese people have made
another historically significant step forward in their
progress toward conquering the summit of world science and
technology."

Such promises do not deter skeptics, who note that the
Chinese military is responsible for the space program and
worry that the Shenzhou 5 is a part of a program to develop
military applications in space.

Other analysts say China is developing military-oriented
space technology but say the Shenzhou 5 has little, if any,
military application. The mission is expected to conduct
some scientific experiments and is carrying seeds for
agricultural tests.

The mission would mark the greatest achievement of a space
program whose development has been interrupted by the
convulsions of contemporary Chinese history. First with the
Great Leap Forward of the late 1950's, then later with the
Cultural Revolution in the 1970's, China's domestic turmoil
slowed, and at some points stopped, the space program.

In the early 1970's, China had started a secret program to
send a man into space, even selecting a training group of
astronauts before the project was canceled. But in 1992,
Jiang Zemin, then the president, who remains the leader of
the Chinese military, which oversees the space program,
signaled China's renewed ambitions in space with a new
program to send a man into orbit.

Since then, China has launched four unmanned spacecraft,
beginning with the Shenzhou 1 in November 1999. The final
test run for this week's launching was the Shenzhou 4 last
December, which Chinese officials say spent seven days in
space before returning. In all, putting a man into space
took more than a decade.

"China has had a very careful, slow-paced buildup to this
launch," said John M. Logsdon, director of the Space Policy
Institute at George Washington University. "This is the
result of a deliberate decision made a decade ago. It's a
very comprehensive program."

It also has big ambitions. Compared with the United States,
where NASA has an annual budget of roughly $15 billion, the
Chinese space budget of $2 billion is small, though it
compares favorably with countries like India and Russia.
Still, the Chinese plan to begin exploring the moon, to
launch a Hubble-like space telescope and, possibly, to
construct a rival space station to the existing
International Space Station.

"The second phase of our program involves more advanced
technologies such as space rendezvous and docking, and will
also include the establishment of an outer space laboratory
system," said Gu Yidong, a high-ranking space official, in
an interview this week with the New China News Agency.

Mr. Gu said China ultimately intended to explore and
exploit space, particularly for energy resources,
suggesting futuristic possibilities like using space as "an
ideal industrial base."

The Chinese assert that they were actually first to try to
send a man into space. A 16th-century Ming Dynasty artisan,
Wan Hu, held kites in each hand and strapped himself to a
chair equipped with rockets, according to some historical
accounts carried in the state news media.

His servants reportedly lit the gunpowder-fueled rocket as
Mr. Wan tried to launch himself into the sky. He failed,
dying in the explosion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/15/international/asia/15SPAC.html?ex=1067211276&ei=1&en=a27c486e0e54cdeb


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