BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese
astronaut celebrated his birthday in orbit on Thursday, as the flight of his
Shenzhou 6 capsule entered its second day, setting a new record for the length
of a Chinese space mission.
blasted off Wednesday on China's second manned
space mission, a costly project meant to affirm Beijing's status as a rising
world power.
On Thursday, they were to
test the capsule's stability by carrying out tasks such as opening and closing the
door, the official Xinhua News Agency said. State television
showed live scenes of the astronauts taking off their bulky, 22-pound
spacesuits and moving around their cabin.
Nie was celebrating his
41st birthday in orbit.
State television showed his
11-year-old daughter, Nie Tianxiang, singing "Happy Birthday'' to him by radio
from the Jiuquan rocket base in China's northwest as technicians clapped. Xinhua
said Nie clapped and told his daughter: "It's marvelous around here. The earth
looks beautiful.''
Early Thursday, the mission
exceeded the 21 1/2 hours that astronaut Yang Liwei spent in orbit on China's first
space flight in 2003. That mission made China only the third nation that
has sent a human into space on its own, after Russia and the United States.
By noon Thursday, the
Shenzhou 6 had circled Earth 18 times, Xinhua said, giving it a rate of
one orbit about every 90 minutes. It said the capsule was traveling at 4.9
miles a second, or about 17,528 mph.
The government has not said
how long Fei and Nie would stay aloft, but news reports said it could be three
to five days. Xinhua reported that they had food and
water for a week.
A Shanghai newspaper said
the capsule was to land Saturday in China's northern grasslands. The report by
the Morning Post didn't cite any source, but Shanghai is a center for
the government's space program, and reports by media there have often proven
accurate.
The flight was front-page
news in China's major newspapers, which carried photos of Fei and Nie in orbit
and waving to technicians before their liftoff.
The manned space program is
a key prestige project for the communist government. Chinese leaders hope that
patriotic pride at its triumphs will shore up their standing amid wrenching
economic change and public anger over corruption and a growing gap between rich
and poor.
Both Fei, also 41, and Nie
are military officers, former fighter pilots and Communist Party members.
The Shenzhou - or Divine
Vessel - capsule is based on Russia's workhorse Soyuz, though with extensive
modifications. China also bought technology for spacesuits, life-support
systems and other equipment from Moscow, though officials say all of the items
launched into space are made in China.
China has had a rocketry program since
the 1950s and sent its first satellite into orbit in 1970. It regularly
launches satellites for foreign clients aboard its giant Long March boosters.
Chinese space officials say
they hope to land an unmanned probe on the Moon by 2010 and want to launch a
space station.
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