Chinese people see their second manned space flight off
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-13 10:15

Chinese exulted at their country's second manned space flight Wednesday after the government eased its secrecy and showed the launch of two astronauts on live television, scoring an extraordinary success in a costly program.

Passengers watch the TV live broadcast of Shenzhou-6's lauch at Beijing International Airport on the morning of Oct 12, 2005. China's second manned spacecraft, Shenzhou-6, carrying two astronauts, successfully entered its planned orbit 21 minutes after lefting land on Wednesday morning, Oct 12, 2005.[Xinhua]

Children in Shanghai watched in class and hundreds of people gathered around a giant video screen at Beijing's main railway station to see astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng blast off from a base in China's desert northwest.

"I am feeling really emotional," said a construction worker at the Beijing train station, who would give only his surname, Liu. "This is a proud moment — not only for China, but for Chinese people all over the world, and for humankind."

By Thursday morning, the mission had already exceeded the time spent in space during China's first manned space mission in 2003, when astronaut Yang Liwei spent 21 1/2 hours in orbit. Fei and Nie were preparing to test their capsule's stability in orbit.

The flight came two years after China launched its first astronaut into orbit in October 2003, becoming only the third nation able to send a human into space on its own, after Russia and the United States.

None of that flight was telecast live, apparently out of fear that something might go wrong. But on Wednesday, Chinese viewers were allowed to see the liftoff and live scenes of Fei and Nie in their cockpit as they roared skyward. A camera attached to the outside of the rocket showed the ground dropping away.

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 at corruption and a growing gap between rich and poor.

Abroad, the government is eager to project an image of China as a rising power with technological and cultural prowess to match its stunning economic growth of the past two decades.

President Hu Jintao and other Communist Party leaders were shown watching Wednesday's launch from a Beijing command center, while Premier Wen Jiabao was at the Gobi Desert launch base.

"China's aerospace science experiments are completely for peaceful purposes. It is also a contribution to human science and the cause of peace," Wen said. "We would like, together with the world's peoples, to make progress hand-in-hand for peaceful use of outer space."

The secrecy surrounding the 2003 launch blunted the event's value as a propaganda event. Many Chinese said they felt little connection to the launch, and when the Shenzhou 5 capsule was displayed in Beijing after its return from orbit, it attracted only modest crowds.

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