The pre-dawn landing of the Shenzhou 6 capsule on the country's northern
grasslands was shown live on television as part of a propaganda effort meant to
rouse support for the ruling party.
Scenes of astronauts Fei
Junlong and Nie Haisheng emerging smiling and waving were shown throughout the
day on television, sparking an outpouring of patriotic excitement at China's
growing technological might.
"It's really incredible and
we're all filled with pride,'' said Li Guoqiang, a Shanghai electrician. "It's
about developing and expressing our national strength.''
Fei and Nie were flown to
Beijing, where they received a hero's welcome, riding in an open car in a
parade past thousands of cheering soldiers at a military base.
State television showed
residents of Fei's hometown of Kunshan, west of Shanghai, setting off
firecrackers and weeping with joy.
"This will further improve
the country's international status and national strength, and will help to
mobilize its people to rally around the Communist Party and work harder for the
future of the country,'' said Wu Bangguo, the party's No. 2 leader, who watched
the landing at a Beijing control center.
The capsule touched down by
parachute at 4:32 a.m. (2032 GMT Sunday), just one kilometer (one half-mile)
from its target in the Inner Mongolia region, the official Xinhua News
Agency said.
Television showed the
astronauts climbing out of their kettle-shaped capsule with the help of two
technicians in red jumpsuits and clambering down a ladder in darkness.
They accepted bouquets of
flowers and sat in metal chairs beside the spacecraft.
"I want to thank the people
for their love and care. Thank you very much,'' Fei said.
Hours later, an official
announced China's next ambition: a possible space walk in 2007.
"Our estimate is that
around 2007 we will be able to achieve extravehicular activity by our
astronauts and they will walk in space,'' Tang Xiangming, director of the China
Manned Space Engineering Office, said at a news conference.
Tang said the program also might
recruit women in its next group of astronaut candidates.
Fei and Nie blasted off
Wednesday from a base in China's desert northwest, almost exactly two years
after the first Chinese manned space flight made this only the third country to
send a human into orbit on its own, after Russia and the United States.
State media broke with the
military-linked space program's usual secrecy and showed intimate scenes of Fei
and Nie working and playing in orbit, turning somersaults and setting morsels
of food floating in zero gravity. Last week, Nie's 11-year-old daughter was
shown singing to him as he celebrated his 41st birthday in orbit.
Communist leaders
apparently hope the greater openness will engage the Chinese public after the
secrecy that shrouded the country's first space flight in 2003 blunted its
propaganda value.
"Today, every son of the
Yellow Emperor feels very proud,'' said Shanghai furniture salesman Zhang
Jinhua, 34, referring to the legendary founder of the Chinese nation.
Communist leaders hope that
such sentiment will shore up their standing at a time of public frustration at
corruption, wrenching economic change and a growing gap between rich and poor.
Shenzhou 6 flew 3.25
million kilometers (2 million miles) in 115 hours and 32 minutes in space,
Xinhua said. The mission was far longer and more complex than the 2003 flight,
when astronaut Yang Liwei orbited for 21 1/2 hours.
The flight cost some 900
million yuan (US$110 million; euro90 million), said Tang, the space office
director.
The government says the
manned space program has cost a total of 19 billion yuan (US$2.3 billion;
euro1.8 billion) - a fraction of the budget of its American counterpart.
The government says it
wants to land an unmanned probe on the moon by 2010 and to send up an orbiting
laboratory.
China has had a rocketry
program since the 1950s and launched its first satellite in 1970. The manned space
program began in 1992.
The Shenzhou 6 is a
modified version of Russia's Soyuz capsule. China also bought Russian technology
for spacesuits, life-support systems and other equipment. But space officials
say all of the items launched into orbit were Chinese-made.
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