State media say the launch
might happen Thursday - almost exactly two years after the first Chinese manned
space mission in 2003 - but the date hasn't been confirmed by the government.
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.
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.
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