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<h2>China Sends Man Into Orbit, Entering U.S.-Russian Club</h2>
<font size="-1">By JIM YARDLEY</font>
<font class="footer">Published: October 15, 2003</font>
The launching took place about 9 a.m., according to the state-run television network, CCTV. At about 9:30, the network showed a videotape of the rocket soaring to the heavens.</p>
The Shenzhou 5, or Divine Vessel, is expected to orbit Earth 14 times before returning after a voyage of roughly 21 hours.</p>
If successful, the mission would make China the third nation to send a man into space, coming more than four decades after the Soviet Union and the United States accomplished the feat at the height of the cold war. </p>
The mission also carries broad political significance for the Chinese government, which hopes to win good will and inspire nationalism in its citizens, many of whom regard the Communist Party as an increasingly irrelevant political dinosaur. </p>
Top officials also want to display China's growing technological savvy and stake a claim to being a world power considered equal to the United States.</p>
Until recent days, the mission has been cloaked in secrecy, down to the most basic information, including how many astronauts would be on board. But on Wednesday morning the lone astronaut proved to be Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, 38, who was chosen from a pool of 14.</p>
"I will not disappoint the motherland," Sina.com, the country's leading Web site, quoted him as saying. "I will complete each movement with total concentration. And I will gain honor for the People's Liberation Army and for the Chinese nation." </p>
A former pilot, Colonel Yang became an astronaut after passing an aptitude test in 1993.</p>
Soon after he rose aloft this morning, Colonel Yang was asked by a doctor at the control center about his condition, the New China News Agency reported, and replied, "I feel good and my conditions are normal." </p>
Assuming he can safely return the spacecraft to its landing spot in Inner Mongolia, Mr. Yang would become an instant national hero, putting a human face on a mission that has emphasized the collective technical prowess of the space program, rather than individuals.</p>
"The successful launching of the Shenzhou 5 manned spacecraft is a glory for our great motherland," President Hu Jintao said in comments issued by the New China News Agency, "and it signifies that our country has scored an initial victory in this first effort at manned space flight. It also signifies the Chinese people have made another historically significant step forward in their progress toward conquering the summit of world science and technology."</p>
Such promises do not deter skeptics, who note that the Chinese military is responsible for the space program and worry that the Shenzhou 5 is a part of a program to develop military applications in space. </p>
Other analysts say China is developing military-oriented space technology but say the Shenzhou 5 has little, if any, military application. The mission is expected to conduct some scientific experiments and is carrying seeds for agricultural tests. </p>
The mission would mark the greatest achievement of a space program whose development has been interrupted by the convulsions of contemporary Chinese history. First with the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950's, then later with the Cultural Revolution in the 1970's, China's domestic turmoil slowed, and at some points stopped, the space program. </p>
In the early 1970's, China had started a secret program to send a man into space, even selecting a training group of astronauts before the project was canceled. But in 1992, Jiang Zemin, then the president, who remains the leader of the Chinese military, which oversees the space program, signaled China's renewed ambitions in space with a new program to send a man into orbit. </p>
Since then, China has launched four unmanned spacecraft, beginning with the Shenzhou 1 in November 1999. The final test run for this week's launching was the Shenzhou 4 last December, which Chinese officials say spent seven days in space before returning. In all, putting a man into space took more than a decade.</p>
"China has had a very careful, slow-paced buildup to this launch," said John M. Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. "This is the result of a deliberate decision made a decade ago. It's a very comprehensive program."</p>
It also has big ambitions. Compared with the United States, where NASA has an annual budget of roughly $15 billion, the Chinese space budget of $2 billion is small, though it compares favorably with countries like India and Russia. Still, the Chinese plan to begin exploring the moon, to launch a Hubble-like space telescope and, possibly, to construct a rival space station to the existing International Space Station.</p>
"The second phase of our program involves more advanced technologies such as space rendezvous and docking, and will also include the establishment of an outer space laboratory system," said Gu Yidong, a high-ranking space official, in an interview this week with the New China News Agency.</p>
Mr. Gu said China ultimately intended to explore and exploit space, particularly for energy resources, suggesting futuristic possibilities like using space as "an ideal industrial base."</p>
The Chinese assert that they were actually first to try to send a man into space. A 16th-century Ming Dynasty artisan, Wan Hu, held kites in each hand and strapped himself to a chair equipped with rockets, according to some historical accounts carried in the state news media. </p>
His servants reportedly lit the gunpowder-fueled rocket as Mr. Wan tried to launch himself into the sky. He failed, dying in the explosion.</p>
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