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Report: China's Manned Spacecraft Near Ready
By Associated Press
posted: 01:15 pm ET
31 May 2002
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BEIJING (AP) _ A leading Chinese spacecraft designer was quoted as saying Friday that China has perfected its design of a manned spaceship, which will carry its first humans into orbit in ``the near future BEIJING (AP) _ A leading Chinese spacecraft designer was quoted as saying Friday that China has perfected its design of a manned spaceship, which will carry its first humans into orbit in ``the near future.'' China's first manned flight will go up aboard a craft ``technically identical'' to an unmanned prototype that returned to Earth on April 1 after a one-week flight, Qi Faren was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency. Qi, chief designer at the government-run Chinese Research Institute of Space Technology, said the newest Chinese rocket, the Long March II-F, also proved itself capable of carrying a manned spacecraft. Qi reportedly said the successful test flight of the Shenzhou III (pronounced ``shen-jo'') spacecraft showed life support and landing systems were ready for manned orbit. It also showed the capsule could survive fiery re-entry into the atmosphere. Chinese land and ship-based tracking systems successfully monitored the flight, he said. China has shrouded its manned space program in secrecy, refusing to publish launch dates of its previous three unmanned test flights, or the names of the dozen fighter pilots now in astronaut training. Foreign experts have said China may attempt a manned flight as early as the end of this year. China would become only the third nation to put humans in space, after Russia and the United States. Beijing's support for the expensive undertaking comes as Communist Party propagandists have turned to flag-waving nationalism to replace discarded leftist dogma
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