China May Send Two Into Space Next Time

By JOE McDONALD

BEIJING (AP) — China’s next manned space launch might carry two astronauts into orbit, a government news agency said Saturday, citing a senior space program official.

The report by the China News Service came as the Shenzhou 5 capsule that carried astronaut Yang Liwei into space was put on display in Beijing but drew only small crowds on its first day.

Yang’s 21 1/2-hour flight last week was lauded by state media as a triumph for the communist system, but the government has done little to engage China’s people. Officials announced Friday that Yang won’t make his first public appearance until next week — and then not on the Chinese mainland but in Hong Kong.

On Saturday, CNS quoted the space program’s deputy chief designer as saying the rocket that fired Yang into orbit was strong enough to carry two or even three astronauts.

“Shenzhou 6 might carry two people into space,” CNS paraphrased Zhang Baokun as saying.

Following Yang’s landing on Oct. 16, officials said China plans to launch another Shenzhou within two years and eventually wants to send up a space station.

Also Saturday, an exhibit featuring Yang’s capsule, its gray-green hull scorched by the heat of re-entry, opened at an exhibition hall on the Chinese capital’s west side.

A room that held the Shenzhou 5, perched on a red velvet-covered platform and surrounded by glass, had about 20 visitors — a tiny number in a city where popular museum exhibits can be packed like rush-hour subways. Many had brought children, and couples snapped photos of each other standing beside the craft.

Chen Ling, 6, knelt beside the glass case, using a folding chair as a desk as he drew a picture of the gumdrop-shaped capsule with black and yellow felt pens.

“It’s great!” he said. “I want to fly in space.”

In a larger adjacent hall, about 100 people looked at models of China’s rocket fleet, a space suit — there was no indication whether it was worn by Yang — and photos from the American and Russian space programs. Also on display was a copy of China’s first satellite, the East Is Red No. 1, launched in 1970.

According to state media, Yang visited the exhibition on Friday night with government officials before it opened to the public.

An employee of the hall’s ticket office who wouldn’t give her name said managers hadn’t counted how many tickets, priced at $3.60, had been sold Saturday. She said state companies also were given 4,000 free tickets.

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