Latest Shenzhou programme Stories

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) [Xinhua: "1st Ld: China's Shenzhou VII Shuttle Shipped To Jiuquan for Octoberlaunch Mission"] BEIJING, July 10 (Xinhua) - China's third manned spaceship, Shenzhou VII, set to launch in October, reached the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the northwestern Gansu Province on Thursday, a source with the launch centre said. The space shuttle was transported to the launch centre by air from Beijing early...

The research team that developed Shenzhou VII, China's third manned space launch, will start final testing after arriving at a north-western satellite launch centre in a few days, said a space mission official here on Tuesday. The research and development team of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) will set out for the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in early July, said Zhang Bainan, chief designer of Shenzhou VII. He said the spacecraft passed inspections by CASC and an...

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) JIUQUAN, Northwest China, June 28 (Xinhua) - Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng, the crew of Shenzhou spacecraft 6, carried the Olympic flame Saturday in the torch relay at the "Dongfeng Space City" in northwest China's Gansu province. A total of 22 bearers took part in the relay in the satellite launch base as most of which were top experts in China's spaceflight programme. Fei, 43, and Nie, 44, had been...

China has successfully tested the spacesuits and airlock to be used in its first-ever spacewalk during a spaceflight later this year, the nation's state-run media has reported. The spacewalk will take place during the Shenzhou 7 mission, China's third manned spaceflight, which is set to launch from Jiuquan, Gansu province, in October 2008, according to recent reports by the Xinhua News Agency and China Daily. "Both the airlock module and the extravehicular spacesuit passed...

HONG KONG -- A Chinese submarine will send test signals that could change the course of a satellite when China launches its first moon orbiter, as part of the country's effort to develop space war technology, a human rights watchdog said Tuesday. The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said two survey ships are deployed in the South Pacific Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean to send signals to maneuver the lunar exploration satellite, expected to be launched Wednesday. At the...

BEIJING -- China's top leaders honored two astronauts who spent five days in space with a military-themed ceremony broadcast live on television Saturday in an apparent attempt to rouse support for communist rule. Dressed in stiff army green instead of their bulky white spacesuits, Chinese astronauts Nie Haisheng and Fei Junlong basked in the elaborate praise heaped on them by President Hu Jintao and other leaders at a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. "The fact that...

BEIJING -- A Chinese man has paid $100,000 for a 90-minute voyage that will make him China's first tourist in space, the China Daily said on Friday.Jiang Fang, president of a Hong Kong company that acts as the China agent for U.S.-based space tourism firm Space Adventures, would experience zero gravity on one of the company's sub-orbital flights due for launch in 2007, the China Daily said.That same year, China plans to launch its third manned space flight, which should include the country's...

By Chris Buckley and Benjamin Kang LimBEIJING (Reuters) - China's second manned spacecraft returned 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 the country's technological prowess.Astronauts Fei Junlong, 40, and Nie Haisheng, 41, were flown to Beijing where they were given a hero's welcome after their Shenzhou VI space capsule touched down in the remote steppes of the northern Chinese region of Inner...

BEIJING -- China's second manned spacecraft returned 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 the country's technological prowess.Astronauts Fei Junlong, 40, and Nie Haisheng, 41, were flown to Beijing where they were given a hero's welcome after their Shenzhou VI space capsule touched down in the remote steppes of the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia.The two astronauts were in good health...

By Chris Buckley and Benjamin Kang LimBEIJING (Reuters) - China's second manned spacecraft returned 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.Astronauts Fei Junlong, 40, and Nie Haisheng, 41, were flown to Beijing where they were given a hero's welcome after their Shenzhou VI space capsule touched down in the remote steppes of the northern Chinese region of Inner...