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China Plans Second Manned Space Flight

Posted on: Monday, 10 October 2005, 16:20 CDT

BEIJING -- China plans to launch two astronauts into orbit Wednesday for a mission lasting several days that is meant to seal its status as an emerging space power.

The mission, which reportedly could last up to five days, is more ambitious and riskier than China's first manned space flight two years ago, which lasted just 21 1/2 hours.

Foreign reporters are barred from the remote base in the Gobi Desert in China's northwest. A handful of Chinese journalists, including some from Hong Kong, are to be on hand for the launch, but have been warned that they might be ordered to hand over any photos or video - a possible image-control measure if anything goes wrong.

The communist government attaches enormous national prestige to its space program, which is closely linked to the secretive military.

In a nation with an annual income per person of less than $1,000 and where millions get by on far less, the government justifies the expense of manned space flight by saying it will help drive economic and technological development.

China's first space flight in 2003 gave the communist leadership bragging rights as only the third government to send a human into orbit on its own, after Russia and the United States.

The manned space program appeals to nationalist sentiment, helping the Communist Party shore up its public standing amid widespread frustration over corruption and a growing gulf between the country's tiny economic elite and its poor majority.

The plan this week is for two astronauts to blast off aboard the Shenzhou 6 capsule.

Three two-member teams of astronauts have arrived at the base near the city of Jiuquan, and the crew for the launch will be picked following a final battery of medical and psychological tests, the state newspaper Wuhan Evening News reported Monday. It cited only "high-level information."

The Shenzhou - or Divine Vessel - capsule is based on Russia's three-seat Soyuz, although with extensive modifications.

Space suits, life-support systems and other equipment are based on technology purchased from Russia, although Beijing says all items to be sent into space are Chinese-made.

China has had a rocketry program since the 1950s and shot its first satellite into orbit in 1970. It regularly launches satellites for foreign clients aboard its giant Long March boosters.

In its first manned flight, a rocket carrying Col. Yang Liwei, a former fighter pilot, blasted into orbit in October 2003. Yang orbited the Earth for 21 1/2 hours and returned a national hero.

Chinese space officials say they want to land an unmanned probe on the moon by 2010 and build a space station.

Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut. Credit: AP

China's first manned spacecraft Shenzhou 5 lifts off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province.

A visitor walks past the model of China's first manned space craft Shenzhou V.

The road to China's space center is a forbidding route patrolled by military vehicles. A sign along the way says in English, "Foreigners are not allowed to enter without permission."

China doesn't participate in the U.S.-led international space station project.

The second flight will be longer and more complicated, lasting five days, according to state media. Reports say the two astronauts will take off their 22-pound suits to travel back and forth between the two halves of their spacecraft - a re-entry capsule and an orbiter that is to stay aloft after they land.

They will also conduct experiments.

In the 2003 flight aboard Shenzhou 5, Yang was confined to his re-entry module for the duration of the flight.

State TV is to show 54 hours of live coverage of the launch, orbit and re-entry, the Hong Kong newspaper Wen Hui Bao newspaper said Sunday.

A documentary about failed space missions by other countries will be aired if the launch does not succeed, the newspaper said, citing Fu Xiaoting, the live broadcast director for China Central Television.

The space center itself is a high-tech oasis in the Gobi Desert in one of China's poorest regions. The government allowed foreign journalists to visit on a guided tour in September 2004, revealing a sprawling campus kept lush and green by rows of sprinklers.

Nearby, peasants struggle to grow crops in the arid desert climate. Women harvest cotton by hand as their children play beside them. Average farm incomes in the area hover around $470 per household a year, and parts of Gansu still depend on food aid from elsewhere in China.

Source: By STEPHANIE HOO/AP

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