China launches space trip this week

10 October 2003, 18:00 PM

Reuters, Beijing

China will launch its first manned spaceship this week, aiming to become the third country after the Soviet Union and the United States to put a man in orbit.

The official Xinhua news agency said yesterday that the Shenzhou V would be launched between October 15 and 17 at an "appropriate time" from a launch pad in the Gobi desert in northwestern China and orbit the Earth 14 times.

It was the first official confirmation of the launch window on a mission China has kept under tight wraps.

"The Shenzhou V spacecraft will carry out the first manned space mission and will lift off from the China Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre," Xinhua quoted an official in charge of the country's space program as saying.

"Now all preparatory work for the launch is progressing smoothly."

Sources at two major state-run television stations and a tour operator told Reuters early this week the launch had been provisionally set for the morning of October 15, barring bad weather.

And Hong Kong's Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po newspaper said the craft would fly for 21 hours, or 90 minutes per orbit, before floating back down to Earth the next morning.