China hails success of second manned space mission
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-17 09:24

China's second manned spacecraft Shenzhou VI returned home on Monday after orbiting the Earth for five days as patriotic fervor gripped the nation and the media hailed the mission as a symbol of China's technological prowess.

The two astronauts reported they had landed safely and were in good health after the space capsule touched down in the remote steppes of the northern Inner Mongolia region, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Fei Junlong, 40, and Nie Haisheng, 41, orbited the Earth 76 times after the launch on Wednesday of a mission already hailed by state media as a breakthrough marking China's emergence as a major technological power.

The two People's Liberation Army colonels received a hero's welcome when the craft touched down at 4.33 a.m. (2033 GMT), barely 1 km (0.62 miles) from its target. Jubilant residents in Nie's home town in central Hubei province set off firecrackers and performed traditional lion dances.

Fei's mother wept on learning of his safe return, and his father declared "The motherland is so great!" Xinhua said.

State television showed the astronauts emerging from Shenzhou VI unaided, pausing atop the charred reentry craft to wave to the recovery team.

A patriotic campaign, in full swing even before the spacecraft landed, went into overdrive.

"Let us raise a welcoming toast to our heroes," Xinhua said in a commentary. "The two men's space journey has touched 1.3 billion beating hearts. These 120 hours have distilled a national dream of half a century."

"At this moment history is returning dignity and sanctity to the Chinese nation. In memories of the not too distant past, we were poor, in darkness and endured the bullying of imperialist powers. The sons of China, with their thousands of years of civilization, were called the sick man of Asia."

Senior Chinese leaders watched the touchdown from the space command center in Beijing.

Parliament chief Wu Bangguo declared the mission had "great significance in raising China's international status, our economic and technological strength, defense and national cohesion."

SPACE PROWESS

Colonel Yang Liwei became the first Chinese man in space when he orbited the Earth 14 times aboard Shenzhou V in October 2003, giving China membership of the exclusive club of countries that have put a man into space. The former Soviet Union and the United States first sent men into orbit in 1961.

President Hu Jintao had spoken to the two astronauts by telephone at the weekend, just days after presiding over a top-level Communist Party meeting that spelt out the country's plans to accelerate its technological development.

"In times past, we couldn't manufacture even a car or ship," Xinhua said in a weekend commentary. "Today an independent, self-sufficient, constantly strengthening China has, like a miracle, become one of a handful of countries able to make the dream of spaceflight a reality."

China has run its ambitious space program on a relative shoestring. Xinhua quoted a Chinese academic as saying the cost of developing the whole Shenzhou programme was about $2.3 billion, a fraction of the $16 billion budget of NASA, the U.S. space agency, for 2005 alone.

But state media have focused mainly on the economic benefits the space program should reap for China's 1.3 billion people.

"Successful flights like Shenzhou VI build cohesiveness and reassure the people about their nation's social and economic potential," said Anthony Curtis, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, who follows China's space program.

China has also used its increasingly reliable Long March rockets to put over 50 satellites into orbit, including several for foreign international clients.

"China's repeated successful launches of manned spacecraft will be extremely likely to help China achieve a fresh breakthrough in the world commercial aerospace market," the China Business newspaper said.

Beijing's next manned mission, including a spacewalk, will take off in 2007, followed by the establishment of an orbiting space station, which Curtis said would be feasible within the next five years.