China Launches Manned Spacecraft

Yang Liwei, astronaut of the first manned spaceflight of China, enters the spacecraft at Shenzhou 5 at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2003. China launched its first manned space mission on Wednesday, sending an astronaut hurtling toward orbit and becoming the third country in Earth's history to do so, four decades after the Soviet Union and the United Sates. AP

China launched its first manned space mission on Wednesday, becoming the third country in Earth's history to put a man in orbit — four decades after the Soviet Union and the United States.

With a column of smoke, the Shenzhou 5 craft cut across a bright, azure northwest China sky at exactly 9 a.m. local time. The official Xinhua News Agency immediately confirmed the launch and said the astronaut was air force Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, 38.

"China's first manned spacecraft, the Shenzhou 5, blasted off," Xinhua said. China Central Television's Channel One, the government's flagship station, cut into its programming to announce the launch; 28 minutes later, the station showed Shenzhou streaking into the sky and disappearing, its tracer billowing behind it.

Minutes after the launch, a CCTV announcer said that Shenzhou 5 and Yang had "entered orbit at 9:10 a.m." Xinhua said he was "reading a flight manual in the capsule of the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft and looked composed and at ease."


It was the culmination of a decade of efforts by China's military-linked manned space program — and a patriotism-drenched moment for a communist government more concerned than ever about its profile on the world stage.

Marcia Smith, Aerospace Policy Specialist of the Congressional Research Service told CBS News Correspondent Adaoro Udoji, "I think they wanted to get as much attention as they could to the fact that they were now joining a very elite club of countries that can launch humans into space.

"They are just the third country to be able to do it after the Soviet Union and the United States. Their launch has come 42 years after those first steps into outer space, but I think to them it's every bit as important as it was to the Soviet Union and our own country," she said.


An announcer on the English-language government channel CCTV-9 invoked American astronaut Neil Armstrong's words upon first walking on the moon. If China's earlier unmanned space launches "were small steps," the announcer said, "then now we are taking a giant leap into space."



China kept details of the event secret, saying in advance only that the launch would take place between Wednesday and Friday and that the astronaut would orbit the Earth 14 times. Yang was identified as a lieutenant colonel.


"The launch of Shenzhou 5 is long-awaited by the Chinese people," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said earlier. She said the flight was a key step in the "peaceful development of space" — a reflection of China's effort to reassure the world that its military-linked program is benign.


Craig Covault, a senior editor for Aviation Week, told CBS News Correspondent Peter King the Chinese Shenzhou 5 is a little larger and more sophisticated than the Russian original it was modeled after.


Xinhua released a picture of Yang, a pilot since 1983, boarding Shenzhou 5 about 8 a.m. local time Wednesday.





But the decision to cancel a live broadcast suggested leaders might be unnerved by the thought of the propaganda disaster that an accident could produce. The People's Daily Web site gave no explanation for the decision to cancel.


The Gansu Daily, published in Lanzhou, capital of the province where the ship was launched, welcomed the accomplishment.

  • David Hancock

    David Hancock is a home page editor for