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- BEIJING (Reuters) - China
announced on Sunday it had successfully launched its first unmanned spacecraft
named "Shenzhou", or God Ship, trumpeting it as a milestone towards
its dream of putting a cosmonaut in space.
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- The dome-shaped craft was in space for 21 hours and orbited
the earth 14 times, making China only the third nation in history to launch
a vehicle capable of carrying a man into space after the former Soviet
Union and the United States.
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- "China deserves a place in the world in the area
of high technology," the official Xinhua news agency quoted the head
of China's Manned Spaceflight Program as saying.
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- "The successful test flight demonstrates that China's
spacecraft and new carrier rocket are excellent in performance," Xinhua
quoted him as saying.
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- State television showed footage of the craft blasting
off on the latest model of the Long March rocket from the Jiuquan satellite
launch center in the northwestern province of Gansu at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday
(2230 GMT Friday).
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- Xinhua said the return module "touched down"
in the northern province of Inner Mongolia at around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday
(1930 GMT Saturday).
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- But television showed only simulation pictures of the
module descending by parachute with four strap-on propulsions bursting
into flames shortly before landing.
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- Xinhua said China would conduct more unmanned test flights
before putting cosmonauts in space. It did not give a timetable.
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- Xinhua crowed over the launch, saying it "once again
demonstrates that China is fully capable of independently mastering the
most advanced technology".
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- The Chinese leadership has been looking for a victory
in its space program to try to boost national morale amid slowing economic
growth and rising unemployment.
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- But membership in the world's exclusive space club was
42 years late. The former Soviet Union became the first nation to go into
space when it launched the man-made satellite Sputnik-1 into orbit 800
km (500 miles) above the earth in October 1957.
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- Chinese newspapers have said China had planned its first
manned space launch to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Communist
rule in October. Reasons for the delay were unknown.
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- Newspapers hit the streets at midday on Sunday, apparently
delayed until the successful return of the spacecraft.
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- A picture of the spacecraft blasting off and calligraphy
by Communist Party boss Jiang Zemin reading "Shenzhou" were splashed
on the front page of the mass-circulation People's Daily.
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- Better late than never, China is gearing up to put a
man into space. The Shanghai-based Wen Hui Bao newspaper said recently
China's best jet fighter pilots have been selected and are being trained
to become cosmonauts.
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- Flight International said the spacecraft was understood
to be based on the Russian Soyuz, but with two pairs of solar panels to
generate on-board power and a cylindrical forward module rather than the
Soyuz's spherical one.
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- It is believed to have a mass of 8.4 tons and could accommodate
up to four cosmonauts.
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- In 1996, two Chinese cosmonauts underwent training at
the Star City Space Center near Moscow after the two sides signed an agreement
for such cooperation.
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- The Chinese cosmonauts studied the full program needed
for manned flight: space navigation, astronomy, the equipment of an orbital
station and other subjects, including an intensive course of physics and
Russian lessons, according to the center.
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- This weekend's launch would "strengthen the nation's
comprehensive national strength, promote the development of science and
technology, enhance national prestige, (and) boost the nation's sense of
pride and cohesiveness", Xinhua said.
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- Various experiments conducted during the mission on space
remote sensing, environment monitoring, space materials, astronomy and
physics helped China's use of space for peaceful purposes, it said.
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- China has built a new land-and sea-based space monitoring
and control network for the launch, the agency said.
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- It was the 59th launch of China's showcase Long March
rocket series, which suffered a string of disasters from 1995-96, and the
17th consecutive successful launch in the past three years, Xinhua said.
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- China launched its first rocket in 1959, one year after
chairman Mao Zedong declared that China would develop atomic bombs, missiles
and satellites.
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