China's first astronaut Yang Liwei walked out of the re-entry capsule of the Shenzhou 5 spaceship, smiling and waving to the recovery team in the grasslands in Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia.

Yang has spent 21 hours in outer space, traveling more than 600,000 kilometres in the earth's orbit before Shenzhou 5 brought him back at 6:07 am Beijing time October 16. Yang said he feels excellent after the 21-hour journey, the first by a Chinese.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao said in a congratulation message that China's first manned spaceflight has been a "complete success", which shall be written into the history of China's space program development.

After Yang went out of the capsule, physicians immediately conducted a physical check-up of Yang, which found him in good conditions. At around 7:40am, Yang was ferried by a military helicopter to Beijing, where a gala celebration party will be held.

At about 6:00am, guided by the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center, the return capsule of Shenzhou 5 entered China's air space. Several minutes later, the capsule landed safely in Northwest China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and Yang reported "conditions good".

Five rescue helicopters raced towards the capsule and found it at 6:36 am. They said Yang felt good and the conditions with the capsule also seemed normal.

At 6:51, Yang Liwei went out of the capsule on himself, waving and smiling to rescuers and reporters.

Li Jinai, chief commander of China's space program, said that, the actual landing site is 4.8 kilometers from the designed site, but the conditions of the return capsule are good and Yang could walk out of the capsule on himself. All these marked the complete success of the manned flight.

(chinadaily.com.cn)