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THE two astronauts on China's second manned space flight landed Monday (October 17) to a heroes' welcome while Beijing called the five-day mission a boost for the ruling Communist Party and announced its next ambition: a space walk by 2007.
The Shenzhou 6 capsule with astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng aboard landed by parachute in China's northern grasslands in a flight meant to boost Beijing's global stature and domestic support for its communist rulers.
Crews rushed to the site in helicopters and off-road vehicles. State 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 the pre-dawn darkness.
They smiled, waved to the cheering ground crew, accepted bouquets of flowers and sat in metal chairs beside the capsule.
"I want to thank the people for their love and care. Thank you very much," Fei said.
The country's No. 2 leader, Wu Bangguo, who watched the landing from the Beijing mission control center, declared the flight a success.
"This will further improve the country's international status and national strength, and will help to mobilise its people to rally around the Communist Party and work harder for the future of the country," Wu said in a brief speech to technicians.
Tang Xiangming, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, told a news conference that the next step for China's space programme was to develop the ability for astronauts to work outside their capsule and to dock with other craft.
"Our estimate is that around 2007 we will be able to achieve extra-vehicular activity by our astronauts and they will walk in space," Tang said. He said the programme also might recruit women in its next group of astronaut candidates.
Fei and Nie blasted off last Wednesday (October 12) 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.
In a break with the military-linked space programme's usual intense secrecy, state media lavished coverage on this mission -- a decision that paid off in an outpouring of patriotic excitement.
"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 pride will shore up their standing at a time of public frustration at corruption, wrenching economic change and a growing gap between rich and poor.
State media showed playful scenes of Fei and Nie in orbit, turning somersaults and setting morsels of food floating in zero gravity.
Last Monday (October 17), state television showed technicians at the Beijing control center, once a closely guarded secret, cheering when word came that the astronauts were safe.
After a snack of noodles, tea and chocolate, Fei and Nie were flown to Beijing and a heroes' welcome.
On the tarmac in the Chinese capital, Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan saluted them and other members of the astronaut corps embraced them, one with tears in his eyes.
Fei and Nie, both military men and former fighter pilots, rode in an open car in a parade through a military facility.
Dressed in blue jumpsuits and white gloves, they waved to thousands of cheering soldiers and groups of children as musicians beat traditional Chinese drums and cymbals. "Welcome the space heroes," said a banner hung along the route.
Shenzhou 6 flew 3.25 million kilometers (two million miles) in 115 hours and 32 minutes in space, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The mission was far longer and more complex than the 2003 flight, when astronaut Yang Liwei orbited for twenty one and a half hours.
The flight cost some 900 million yuan (US$110 million), said Tang, the space office director.
The government says the manned space programme has cost a total of 19 billion yuan (US$2.3 billion) -- a fraction of the budget of its American counterpart.
The government already has announced plans to land an unmanned probe on the Moon by 2010 and eventually to send up an orbiting laboratory.
China has had a rocketry programme since the 1950s and launched its first satellite in 1970. The manned space programme 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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