Shenzhou space capsule arrives in Chinese capital _ and is declared

BEIJING (AP) — Following its astronaut home, the Shenzhou 5 space capsule arrived in the Chinese capital by train and rolled through the streets, escorted by lion dancers and welcomed by cheering crowds.

A top space engineer said it had made the trip into orbit and back with minimal bumps and bruises — and some of its systems might be reusable.

“The capsule came back without any damage. I think the instruments inside can be used for the next launch,” Qi Faren, Shenzhou 5′s chief designer, said on Friday’s official national evening newscast. He echoed China’s pride in its space program: “Although we started quite late, we started from a higher level.”

The capsule, which traveled thousands of kilometers (miles) an hour as it carried Lt. Col. Yang Liwei into orbit Wednesday and deposited him on the Inner Mongolian grasslands a day later, returned to Beijing far more slowly — by railroad, wrapped in camouflage cloth.

Space officials greeted it, and state television showed technicians gingerly shepherding it onto a flatbed truck. From there it made its way through the streets, escorted by lion dancers as Chinese lined the sidewalks, waving flags and holding balloons and smiling.

The capsule that made China into the world’s third spacefaring nation, behind the former Soviet Union and the United States, was to be opened Saturday and examined in detail, Qi said.

It was handed over to the Chinese Research Institute of Space Technology Friday, and a preliminary examination showed the engines operated “normally” for touchdown and the landing capsule itself “remained intact,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Yang, 38, China’s newest celebrity, was reported “in good physical health” in Beijing after extensive medical tests Friday, the government announced. It said his official recovery period — during which he will be monitored closely — could be shortened from a week to as little as two days.

The second-generation People’s Liberation Army fighter pilot, in comments released Friday, confirmed that, contrary to popular belief, China’s most famous piece of engineering can’t be seen from on high.

“I did not see the Great Wall from space,” Yang said, answering a question from a China Central Television viewer.

In a nod to the space program’s roots, CCTV also showed 92-year-old Tsien Hsue-shen, the reclusive founder of China’s rocketry program, exulting in Shenzhou 5′s success.

The Chinese-born Tsien, a co-founder of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was driven from the United States in 1955 during anti-communist fervor and returned to work for his homeland.

In the TV footage, shot Friday, the aged Tsien — lying in a medical bed in a sun-drenched room — smiled as friends showed him splashy front pages with big headlines and color pictures of the craft, the view from space and Yang.

Tsien, dubbed “king of rockets” by the Chinese government, retired in 1991, the year before the country’s latest manned space program was launched. But his research formed the basis for the Long March CZ-2F rocket that carried Yang into orbit.

China said Thursday it would push forward with the manned program, announcing plans to send another Shenzhou capsule within two years and eventually construct a permanent space station.

Yang, the subject of lavish praise in the state-controlled Chinese media on Friday, said he felt “a little bit fatigued” about 10 hours into the mission, but managed to eat the food prepared for him and even slept for about a half-hour.

“Of course, I wish it had lasted a bit longer,” Yang said late Thursday in a China Central Television interview, a transcript of which was issued Friday.

In the CCTV interview, Yang said he felt no fear during his 14 Earth orbits, and that everything aboard the craft went “entirely according to the program.” He said the hardest part had been adjusting to the loss of gravity.

Yang said his first log entry had read: “For the peace and progress of all mankind, the Chinese have come to outer space.”

The government says its presence in space will be peaceful, though Xinhua ran an article Friday comparing its longtime nuclear capabilities with its manned space program. The headline: “From A-bomb to Shenzhou 5.”