BEIJING (Reuters) - China announced on Sunday it had launched its first unmanned spacecraft, joining the world's exclusive space club.
Following is a chronology of key events since 1959.
1958 - Chairman Mao Zedong declares China will develop atomic bombs, missiles and satellites.
1959 - China launches its first rocket.
1970 - China puts its first satellite into orbit.
1992 - Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin calls for China to launch a manned spacecraft.
January 1995 - The Chinese-designed Long March 2E rocket carrying a telecommunications satellite explodes after blast-off from Xichang in the southwestern province of Sichuan, killing a family of six people.
February 1996 - A rocket carrying an Intelsat 708 communications satellite explodes soon after take-off from China's launch site in Xichang.
August 1996 - A Long March rocket places a $120 million Chinese satellite in the wrong orbit, leaving it drifting hopelessly in space.
December 1996 - Two Chinese cosmonauts start training at Russia's Star City Space Center.
November 20, 1999 - Some 42 years after the former Soviet Union became the first nation to go into space, China launches first unmanned spacecraft "Shenzhou,'' or God Ship, in the northwestern province of Gansu and joins the world's exclusive space club.
November 21, 1999 - "Shenzhou'' touches down in the northern province of Inner Mongolia after 21 hours in space and orbiting the earth 14 times.
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